James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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153. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary and post-primary schools that have access to home school liaison services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5105/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Under the DEIS programme, the HSCL Scheme seeks to promote partnership between parents, teachers and community family support services, with a view to supporting improved attendance, participation and retention. A HSCL Coordinator is a teacher from a participating school/s who is released from teaching duties, for a maximum of five years, in order to work intensively with and support parents/guardians. The overarching goal of the HSCL Coordinator is to improve educational outcomes for children through their work with the key adults in the child’s life. HSCL is a school-based intervention provided to address the needs of students and their families in disadvantaged areas through acknowledging and developing the role of the parent as prime educator. This is achieved through targeting the families of students most at risk of educational disadvantage and putting in place a range of appropriate support interventions.

Currently, all DEIS Urban Primary and DEIS Post Primary schools are included in the HSCL Scheme, which serves 693 schools. The scheme is delivered by 529 full-time HSCL Coordinators who are teachers in these schools and assigned to HSCL duties either in individual schools or clusters of schools, catering for approximately 207,000 pupils.

In addition to the above;

- a pilot project to support Traveller and Roma pupils, under the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy is in operation in 4 pilot locations, (Galway, Wexford, Dublin and Cork) with 1 HSCL assigned in each pilot location. The pilot project supports approximately 50 schools

- under 2022 Dormant Accounts Funding, my Department received €400,000to support attendance, participation and retention among Traveller and Roma learners. Part of the measures for this additional funding include the allocation of 10 new HSCL Coordinator posts in 14 non-DEIS post-primary schools.