John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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107. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a school (details supplied) all of whose principal feeder schools have DEIS status, has not been awarded DEIS status; when the circumstances of this will be reconsidered; if the school may appeal the failure by her Department to award it DEIS recognition; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18561/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I recently announced that from next September the DEIS programme will be extended to an additional 310 schools. 37 schools will also benefit from additional supports following reclassification. Schools were identified for inclusion in the programme through the refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics based model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools.

My Department is committed to ensuring that all schools are treated equally and fairly in the manner in which they have been identified for inclusion in the DEIS programme. Schools who were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS identification model to their school enrolment data will now have the opportunity to have that outcome reviewed.

Circular 0019/2022 outlining the details of this appeals process was published recently by my Department and is available at www.gov.ie/en/circular/7e7ca-deis-identification-2022-appeals-process-for-schools/

My Department notified all schools of the appeals process on 30th March 2022. Schools have until 5pm on Friday April 29th to submit an appeal.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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108. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if an additional school completion and home school liaison could be provided to a school (details supplied) in County Tipperary which has been awarded DEIS status without these supports; the reason these supports are not included in the rural DEIS grouping; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18562/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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From September 2022 the DEIS programme is being extended to benefit 347 schools. These schools will access all supports under the programme to match their respective DEIS band. Schools are assigned to the DEIS bands based on the location of the school and their level of concentrated educational disadvantage.

The school referred to by the Deputy is a rural DEIS primary school. Amongst other supports, the school in question will benefit from additional funding in the form of a DEIS grant and can use this funding to mitigate educational disadvantage in line with the school’s DEIS planning process.

Access to the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) Scheme and the School Completion Programme (SCP) is available to urban DEIS schools only.

The impact of socio-economic factors on educational outcomes can be different between urban and rural settings and the HSCL scheme and SCP takes account of that. While urban and rural disadvantage share many characteristics, such as poverty, unemployment and poor housing conditions, the evidence suggests that disadvantage in a rural context does not have the same impact on educational outcomes.

My Department's objective in implementing the DEIS Plan is to have the maximum possible impact on providing opportunities for students most at risk of disadvantage. To achieve this, additional resources must be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest need in terms of concentrated levels of disadvantage.