Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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464. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status or regard a school should have for a doctor’s recommendation that action be taken to support a pupil who is suffering mentally with the stress of an ongoing series of incidents, where that doctor’s letter recommends that action be taken by the school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16619/25]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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465. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there are special provisions in place where a transfer to another school is recommended by a medical professional but where there are no suitable school places in the immediate vicinity of the school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16620/25]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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466. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there are any circumstances in which her Department or her office will intervene to protect the health, safety and welfare of a child where the school management have not responded adequately to the recommendations of a medical professional; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16621/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 464, 465 and 466 together.

Schools are required to take all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of pupils and welfare of their pupils and it is the responsibility of each individual managerial authority to arrange for their appropriate safety.

Under the Education Act 1998 the Board of Management of a school is the body charged with the direct governance of a school and it is the Board of Management which employs the staff at the school. The Board of Management is accountable to the Patron of the school. The Department of Education provides funding and policy direction for schools. It does not have the power to instruct schools to follow a particular course of direction with regard to individual complaint cases. The Department's role is to clarify for parents and students how their grievances and complaints against schools can be progressed.

A school may have a formal complaints process which should be followed in pursuing any complaint. Where a parent is of the view that a school's board of management has failed to investigate or adequately investigate a complaint, it is open to them to raise the matter directly with the Chairperson of the Board of Management by correspondence marked “Private and Confidential”. The parent also has the option of raising the complaint with the Ombudsman for Children. The Office of the Ombudsman for Children may independently investigate complaints about schools recognised by the Department of Education, provided the parent has firstly and fully followed the school's complaints procedures. The key criterion for any intervention by the Ombudsman for Children is that the administrative actions or non-actions of a school has, or, may have, adversely affected the child.

It is important to highlight that where any concern, whether raised by a parent, school staff member, or other individual, relates to the health, safety or welfare of a child to such an extent that it may constitute a child protection issue, my department has established procedures, the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools (revised 2023), which should be followed.

In addition, the Home Tuition Grant Scheme (Special Education Component) is a short-term measure available to provide funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of specific reasons, are unable to attend school. These include students, enrolled in schools, with a significant medical condition, which has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, major disruption to their attendance at school or students, enrolled in schools, with school phobia and/or associated depression/anxiety, which has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, major disruption to their attendance at school. Further information is available on gov.ie - Home Tuition