Written answers

Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Department of Education and Skills

Scoileanna DEIS

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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111. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the appeal for DEIS status of a school (details supplied) will be determined; if she will set out the criteria used in deciding the original application of the school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26786/22]

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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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 and all appeals which were submitted to my Department are currently being processed.

Circular 0019/2022 – DEIS Identification 2022: Appeals process for schools sets out the appeals process.

An appeal has been received for the school in question.

When all appeals have been processed, schools will be informed in writing of the outcome of the appeal. It is my Department’s intention that schools will be provided with the outcome in the coming weeks to allow schools time to plan for the 2022/23 school year.

Schools have been identified for inclusion in the programme through the refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics based model. This model uses information from my Department's enrolment databases and the Pobal HP Deprivation index.

The extension of the DEIS programme to additional schools follows intensive work by the DEIS technical group, which involved valuable input from stakeholders. The refined DEIS identification model builds on the objectivity and fairness of the 2017 version, but now captures a greater breadth of disadvantage and accounts for severity of disadvantage through the application of a weighted process. It also takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and of students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. The DEIS programme focuses on targeting additional resources at those schools with the highest concentrations of students who are at risk of educational disadvantage. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools. Further information on the refined DEIS identification model is available on the www.gov.ie website.

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