Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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542. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures that are being taken to ensure that the children of foreign nationals in counties Longford and Westmeath receive a fair education and are not disadvantaged due to language or cultural differences. [46735/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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All children and young people up to the age of 18 years irrespective of status, including migrant children, children of international protection applicants, refugees, migrant workers and unaccompanied minors have access to free primary and post-primary education in the same way as Irish nationals. A school must admit all students applying where it is not oversubscribed and places are available. Schools must also state within their admission policy that they will not discriminate in their admission on any of nine specified grounds, including race and religion.

All parents have the right to choose which school to apply to, and parents with children of school-going age arriving in Ireland are free to contact schools directly to enrol their child/children. Where local pressure points for school places arise for newly arrived children, the Department works with the Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT) to put necessary arrangements in place to secure school places.

The Minister for Education Norma Foley announced in March 2022 the establishment of Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT) to support the needs of Ukrainian children arriving in Ireland.

These teams now also support IPAS (International Protection Accommodation Service) arrivals, and also IRPP (Irish Refugee Protection Programme) refugees where school placements are required either during accommodation in, or following resettlement from, ROC (reception and orientation centres) or as part of other state sponsored programmes or resettlements.

These Education and Language Teams are hosted by the 16 regional Education and Training Boards (ETBs), including Longford and Westmeath ETB. The REALT are staffed by existing regionally based education-support personnel working closely together to ensure good co-ordination and alignment of supports for these children.

The primary role of REALT is to assist children in finding school places and to support schools to meet the needs of these children as they arise, to advise and support the department in developing new capacity where required, and to co-ordinate the provision of education services to children and families across their defined area. These teams ensure that clear, accessible information flows are in place between schools, local education support services and national support structures in relation to Ukrainian and IP (International Protection) arrivals.

The regional teams are hosted and administratively supported within the ETBs and lead a network of other key agencies, including Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) regional personnel, National Council for Special Education (NCSE) regional personnel and management body local nominees working together with local schools. All of the key agencies working together in a holistic manner bring added value and efficiencies to the process of supporting Ukrainian and IP children.

Ukrainian and IP families may enrol their children in schools as per usual practice although REALT are available to assist these families where difficulties arise such as a lack of capacity.

The Statement of Strategy 2023–2025 sets out my Department’s vision for an education system where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. The central goals of the strategy include providing high-quality education and a learning experience that meets the needs of all children and young people, ensuring equity of opportunity in education and ensuring that our education system welcomes all children and young people irrespective of their background or ability.

The Migrant Integration Strategy was published in 2017 and sets out the Government’s commitment to the promotion of migrant integration as a key part of Ireland’s renewal and as an underpinning principle of Irish society. The Strategy provides a framework for a range of actions to support migrants to participate fully in Irish life. These actions are designed to support the integration process, as well as to identify and address any remaining barriers to integration.

A key element of the Strategy’s vision was for migrants, and particularly their children, to benefit fully from the education system. Education-related actions included enactment of the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016, and to keep the adequacy of language supports in schools under review continue to be progressed and our engagement with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) who have responsibility for the Strategy.

The Department has adapted to the dynamic landscape of student enrolment. This has been particularly effective in the context of the pace and volume of newly arrived students fleeing the war in Ukraine and the ongoing increase in students, who require EAL supports to fully access the curriculum.

The Department has prioritised enhancing English as an Additional Language (EAL) support, recognising the critical role of language proficiency in successful integration and academic achievement.

These supports to schools, based on application process, are provided for new-entrant pupils (i.e., pupils arrived in the country in the last 2 years with an EAL requirement). Similar to previous years, supports may also be provided for schools with a high concentration of pupils that are not classified as new-entrant pupils but who have an EAL need i.e., those pupils with less than 3 years EAL support and register less than B1 in an English proficiency test.

The Department's policies enable flexible resource allocation to ensure that the resources follow children in the event of them changing schools. Schools may also apply for further language support by an application process during the school year, should their circumstances change.

The table below outlines the language support allocations to date for the 2024/25 school year, for both primary and post primary schools in the counties Longford and Westmeath.

My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, such as access to supports of the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.

Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector. In March 2022, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. The programme now includes over 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. This means 1 in 4 of all students enrolled in schools are now supported in the programme.