Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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110. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details of the number of referrals from schools for students missing days that are currently before education and welfare officers, by county; the dates these outstanding referrals were submitted by schools; the details of the current backlog; the measures being taken to deal with the backlog; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13878/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Educational Welfare Service (EWS) which is part of Tusla Education Support Services (TESS) receives referrals from school principals, parents and other agencies where there is a concern in relation to a child’s school attendance.

The EWS has received referrals for 3,412 children in this academic year to the end of February 2023. Educational Welfare Officers (EWOs) nationally are currently working with 3,659 children and have worked with 5,430 individual children in that period, taking into account that involvement with some children can be across academic years. The service waiting list for the same period is 3,351 children.

The EWS databases do not currently make it possible to filter data to county level or to identify the length of time a referral has remained on a waiting list. System improvements are in development and this will be possible in due course.

In recent months, a number of new EWOs have been appointed to help deal with the demand on the service. A Duty EWO system is currently being piloted in each of the 5 EWS Regions where low level non-school attendance will be swiftly addressed.

EWO’s are also conducting attendance clinics in schools to meet with parents where school attendance concerns have been identified at an early stage to promote and support a rapid improvement in regular school attendance for identified students. These clinics are run by the local EWOs in partnership with School Principals and Home School Community Liaison teachers. Their role is to provide a rapid response and alert parents to the seriousness of the issue. They also sets targets around a return to more regular school attendance and will carryout a review after a period of time.