Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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99. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will review the process by which DEIS designation is given to schools to ensure that all schools that cater for students from all backgrounds, including refugees, are properly recognised; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2881/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing these universal supports, the DEIS programme provides a targeted and equitable way to address concentrated educational disadvantage that promotes equity across the primary and post-primary sector.

Last March, I was glad to be able to announce a major expansion of the DEIS programme. For the first time since 2017, the programme was significantly expanded to include an additional 322 schools. This means that the DEIS programme now supports over 240,000 students in over 1,200 schools, addressing educational disadvantage. 1 in 4 students and 30% of schools are now supported in the programme. The recent expansion will add an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation on the programme to €180million.

Schools that were identified for inclusion in the programme were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified 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 was applied fairly and equally to all schools.

The development of the refined DEIS identification model followed extensive work by the DEIS technical group. The group sought to identify enhancements to the identification model that would allow it capture a wide breadth of disadvantage in order to identify those schools with the highest proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. One important refinement developed by the technical group provided that the model took into consideration the level of disadvantage experienced by students residing in accommodation provided by the International Protection Accommodation Service. It also took into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and by students residing in emergency homeless accommodation. A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie.

It is important to note that schools that are catering for children fleeing war in Ukraine and children residing in accommodation provided by IPAS, the International Protection  Accommodation service, are provided with resources to ensure that those children are supported in their education. Additional teaching resources have been granted to support schools in their work with children who require supports. Additional language supports, special educational needs and wellbeing supports have also been provided. 

My Department’s Statement of Strategy, sets out the vision and mission of the Department for an educational system where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential.  It sets as a goal to ensure equity of opportunity in education and that all pupils are supported to fulfil their potential.

Recognising this, it is important to note that the extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in achieving this vision. I acknowledge that there are children at risk of educational disadvantage being supported in schools throughout the country, not just in the DEIS programme. These schools have access to universal supports such as the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), extra teacher hours in the form of English as an Additional Language (EAL) support, as well as additional resource teachers and special educational needs supports.

The next phase of work to continue to address disadvantage will explore the allocation of resources to schools to tackle educational disadvantage. Part of this programme of work will involve consultation with stakeholders.

Following the National Census 2022 held on the 3rd April last it is envisaged that an updated HP Deprivation Index will be generated by Pobal and will be available in Q3 of 2023. My Department will engage with Pobal in relation to this process. The updated HP Deprivation Index, when available, can be considered by my Department to inform future resource allocation to tackle educational disadvantage.