John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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136. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her strategy to boost education outcomes and inclusiveness for children and young persons who are at risk of educational disadvantage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13488/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) is the main policy instrument of my Department to tackle educational disadvantage at school level.

The DEIS programme focuses on targeting additional resources at those schools with the highest concentrations of students who are at risk of educational disadvantage. This is based on the existence of a ‘multiplier effect’, meaning that students in these schools have been found to have less positive educational outcomes, even taking account of individual social background. There is a strong evidence base in the Irish context that the social class mix of a school matters, in particular in those urban schools with higher levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage which provides a rationale for providing targeted supports to these schools .

Schools participating in the DEIS programme have seen retention rates to Leaving Certificate improve since the introduction of DEIS - from 80.1% for the 2006 entry cohort to 84.8% for the 2014 entry cohort. The gap in retention rates between DEIS and non-DEIS schools has narrowed from a gap of 16.8% for the 2001 entry cohort to approx. 8.6% for the 2014 cohort .

I was glad yesterday to be able to announce a major expansion of the DEIS – Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme that will see the programme extended to an additional 310 schools. For the first time since 2017 the DEIS programme is being significantly expanded and eligible schools will now gain access to targeted supports to address educational disadvantage. In addition 37 existing DEIS schools are being reclassified and eligible for increased supports. This will add an additional €32million to the Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023. This is the largest ever single investment in the programme and will extend additional resources to those schools most in need.

As a result of this announcement from September 2022 1,194 schools will be in the DEIS programme serving over 240,000 students.

The full list of supports and resources provided to schools in the DEIS programme is available at www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/4018ea-deis-delivering-equality-of-opportunity-in-schools/#supports-to-deis-schools

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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137. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when decisions will be made on individual schools for the expansion of DEIS status for non- DEIS schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13511/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I announced yesterday the expansion of the DEIS programme benefitting 347 schools. These schools were identified as having the highest levels of educational disadvantage.  In the 2022/23 academic year there will be 1,194 schools in the DEIS Programme - 960 Primary and 234 Post Primary. This will also add a €32million increase in my Department's expenditure on DEIS programme from 2023. This is the largest ever single investment in the programme and will extend additional resources to those schools most in need.

This announcement follows an extensive body of work by the DEIS technical group to develop the refined DEIS identification model to identify the concentrated levels of disadvantage of schools. Schools were identified for inclusion in the programme through the refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics based model which uses information from the Department of Education enrolment databases and the Pobal HP Deprivation index. The DEIS identification model now takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and by students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. Using this approach we can be confident that the largest investment to date in the DEIS programme is being provided to those schools most in need. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools.

This announcement achieves the Programme for Government commitment to complete the new DEIS identification model and to extend DEIS status to schools serving the highest numbers of pupils at risk of educational disadvantage.