School Admissions: 4 Jul 2023: Written answers (KildareStreet.com)

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for the question and would like to advise the following. There are essentially two state agencies who can assist where a child is seeking a school place.

The Educational Welfare Service (EWS) is part of Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) and operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, a piece of legislation that emphasises the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention.

The EWS deal with children and families who have difficulties in relation to school attendance, participation and retention. This is a statutory service and its primary role is to ensure that every child either attends school regularly or otherwise receives a certain minimum education; to ensure and secure every child’s entitlement to education.

TESS offers advice and assistance to parents seeking school placements for their children. However, if there is oversubscription for schools in a particular geographical area it may be necessary to make applications to schools in a neighbouring town/village. Contact details for TESS can be found on the Tusla website: www.tusla.ie/get-in-touch/

An Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) may have knowledge of schools that may have capacity and will advise parents to make an application to that school. Parental choice has to be taken into account when seeking a school place for a child but a place in a school of first choice is not always possible. The EWO can designate a school place for a student if it can be proven that the school has capacity and have refused to admit the child in accordance with their admissions policy.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs nationwide.

Parents seeking special class placements for their children are advised to contact the NCSE locally so that their needs can be taken into account for planning purposes. The local special educational needs organisers (SENOs) remain available to assist and advise parents of children with special educational needs. Parents may contact SENOs directly using the contact details available at: www.ncse.ie/regional-services-contact-list.

Information on the list of schools with special classes, the types and locations of these classes is also published on the NCSE website: www.ncse.ie.

The NCSE is committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements will be available for children for the coming school year 2023/24.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for my Department.

In order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department's projections of school place requirements.

While my Department is aware of enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, it is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, it may not be as a result of lack of accommodation but may be driven by the following factors:

Duplication of applications – pupils have applied for a place to a number of schools in the area
School of choice – pupils can’t get a place in their preferred school while there are places in other schools in the town/area
Some towns/areas have single sex schools and while places are available in the school they are not available to all pupils
External draw – pupils coming from outside the local area

My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998.

Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

There are currently a number of projects in train in the Lucan School Planning area which will increase local capacity over the coming years. These include a New School Building at Griffeen Community College, and extension projects at Ste Joesph’s College, St Kevin’s Community College and Lucan Community College

My Department will continue to keep the school place requirements in Lucan, as with other areas across the country, under review.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for my Department.

In order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department's projections of school place requirements.

While my Department is aware of enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, it is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, it may not be as a result of lack of accommodation but may be driven by the following factors:

Duplication of applications – pupils have applied for a place to a number of schools in the area
School of choice – pupils can’t get a place in their preferred school while there are places in other schools in the town/area
Some towns/areas have single sex schools and while places are available in the school they are not available to all pupils
External draw – pupils coming from outside the local area

My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998.

Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

There is currently a project on site at Moyle Park College in the Clondalkin School Planning area which will increase local capacity over the coming years.

My Department will continue to keep the school place requirements in Clondalkin, as with other areas across the country, under review.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for my Department.

In order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department's projections of school place requirements.

While my Department is aware of enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, it is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, it may not be as a result of lack of accommodation but may be driven by the following factors:

Duplication of applications – pupils have applied for a place to a number of schools in the area
School of choice – pupils can’t get a place in their preferred school while there are places in other schools in the town/area
Some towns/areas have single sex schools and while places are available in the school they are not available to all pupils
External draw – pupils coming from outside the local area

My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998.

Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

Newcastle is part of the Newcastle Rathcoole School Planning Area. There are currently 2 New School Building projects in train at both Post Primary Schools in that SPA which will increase local capacity over the coming years.

My Department will continue to keep the school place requirements in Newcastle, as with other areas across the country, under review.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for my Department.

In order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department's projections of school place requirements.

While my Department is aware of enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, it is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, it may not be as a result of lack of accommodation but may be driven by the following factors:

Duplication of applications – pupils have applied for a place to a number of schools in the area
School of choice – pupils can’t get a place in their preferred school while there are places in other schools in the town/area
Some towns/areas have single sex schools and while places are available in the school they are not available to all pupils
External draw – pupils coming from outside the local area

My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998.

Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

The Department is working to establish the true extent of any capacity issues across school planning areas through ongoing discussions with the relevant school patrons and authorities.

This close engagement will allow the Department to identify particular capacity requirements for the forthcoming years which may necessitate further action to that already in train including, where required, the provision of modular accommodation solutions.

The Educational Welfare Services (EWS) of the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) is the statutory agency that can assist parents who are experiencing difficulty in securing a school place for their child. The local service is delivered through the national network of Educational Welfare Officers (EWO). Contact details are available at www.tusla.ie/get-in-touch/education-and-welfare/.

Written answers

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

What are written answers?

Department of Education and Skills

School Admissions

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