Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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534. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 435 of 1 April 2025, the process that was used to determine the DEIS status of a school (details supplied); if there is a mechanism whereby the school can appeal the decision to exclude a school from the DEIS band 1 programme considering all other schools in the catchment area are within that programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17397/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing these universal supports, the DEIS programme provides a targeted and equitable way to address concentrated educational disadvantage that promotes equity and has benefits for students.

The DEIS programme is an additional layer of support which focuses on targeting additional resources at those schools with the highest concentrations of students who are at risk of educational disadvantage. Schools were identified for inclusion in the DEIS programme using the refined DEIS identification model. The key data sources used in the new DEIS identification process were

1. the enrolment returns provided by schools in the National School Annual Census for 2021/2022, which were returned via the POD and PPOD school enrolment databases,
2. CSO data from the National Census of population as represented in the HP index at small area level. The Pobal HP Deprivation index is primarily based on census data. It provides a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a small geographical area, using data compiled from the National Census.

The individual student address data supplied by schools was anonymised and matched to HP index small areas to accord a relevant deprivation score.

In order to match a HP index small area score to each student address, using the data from the POD and PPOD systems, each address was mapped where possible to an Eircode or one small area as outlined in the Pobal HP deprivation index map. Each address was then assigned the relevant HP index score of their small area.

The model takes into account students who are from areas with a HP index score of -7.5 and below. Students from areas with a HP index score of -7.5 and below in each individual school are grouped into three groups based on their level of disadvantage and assigned a weighting to reflect the severity of their relative disadvantage:

• those with a HP index score of -20 or below are accorded a status of very disadvantaged and given a double weighting
• those with a HP index score between -10 and -20 are accorded a status of disadvantaged and given a single weighting
• those between -7.5 and -10 are accorded a status of borderline disadvantaged and given a weighting of 0.5.

In addition to this, where a school has students who have chosen to self-identify on the POD and PPOD systems as Traveller or Roma or has addresses on the POD and PPOD system which match the addresses of direct provision or state-funded emergency homeless accommodation settings, these students are assigned a status of disadvantage which ensures that they are considered within the application of the model, independent of the HP index (as it applies at small area level) and this is reflected in the school’s overall disadvantage score.

In terms of applying the refined DEIS identification model, two methods were used.

A school’s initial disadvantage score was calculated by assigning the weights and summing the proportion of students in each of the three disadvantaged groupings together. Schools’ scores were then standardised relative to their respective primary or post-primary score distributions. This provided a standardised disadvantage score for each school.

In addition to the above, the proportion of students with a HP score at or below -10 in each school was computed.

Schools are identified for inclusion in the DEIS programme based on their standardised disadvantage score and/or the proportion of students with a HP score at or below -10. Schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage under either of these measurements are included in the DEIS programme, with urban primary schools with the very highest levels assigned to Urban Band 1.

A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie at www.gov.ie/en/publication/a3c9e-extension-of-deis-to-further-schools/#how-schools-were-selected-for-inclusion-in-deis.

All schools that were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS identification model to their school enrolment data, were provided with the opportunity to make an appeal. Circular 0019/2022 outlined the details of the DEIS appeals process. Under the DEIS appeals process, schools were provided with the opportunity to have the application of the refined DEIS identification model to their schools data reviewed. The appeals process also offered schools the opportunity to review their school enrolment data which they had submitted to the department and to improve its accuracy if necessary. All appeals submitted have now been processed by the department and schools have been notified of the outcome. The DEIS appeals process was applied fairly across all appellants, the window for appeals has now closed and the results are final.

I am committed to tackling educational disadvantage and supporting children who need it most. I will publish a new DEIS Action Plan this year and it will focus on closing the gap between DEIS and non DEIS schools.