Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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225. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a detailed breakdown, of student absenteeism rates for each of the past five academic years (2018/2019 to 2022/2023), specifying the number and percentage of primary and post-primary students who missed 20 or more days of school, disaggregated by county and Dáil electoral area, in tabular form. [26565/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my Department. TESS operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, a piece of legislation that emphasises the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention. TESS has three strands namely the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) and the two school support services the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) scheme and the School Completion Programme (SCP). The three TESS strands work together collaboratively with schools, parents and guardians and other relevant services to achieve the best educational outcomes for children and young people.

The Act provides that every child either attends school regularly or otherwise receives a certain minimum education; to ensure and secure every child’s entitlement to education. The Act defines a child as being, a person resident in the State, who has reached the age of 6 years, and who has not reached the age of 16 years or has not completed 3 years of post-primary education, whichever occurs later.

In line with the Act, all primary schools, including special schools, and post-primary schools must report annually on student non-attendance in primary and post-primary schools at an aggregated level. This data is collected using the Tusla Portal hosted by the Child and Family Agency to generate two reports.

The data is presented first from the Annual Attendance Report (AAR), which provides four pieces of data:

• total days lost by all students,
• total students absent for 20 or more days,
• total students suspended,
• total students expelled at the school level.

• 'Anseo' – a new evidence-based framework to help schools analyse and respond to attendance data, to be rolled out in 60 schools following a successful pilot.
• A national multi media campaign, launching this September which will promote the importance of regular school attendance to students, parents and guardians.
• Continued investment in the Educational Welfare Service, including expansion of educational welfare officer capacity.
• Promotion of the benefits for children and young people of being present in school on each school day.
• A national Attendance Conference in early 2026 to share best practices and promote whole-system engagement.
• A scoping project to deliver real-time attendance data for better decision-making and intervention.
• Continued investment in the School Completion Programme and better planning between the School Completion Programme and the range of supports available through the non-formal education sector in youth so that the range of young people’s needs during school days, school holidays and weekends can be best planned for and met.
• Work across relevant Government Departments to embed attendance as a priority from early childhood onwards.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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226. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the specific measures her Department is taking to address the significant and rising levels of student absenteeism across primary and post-primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26566/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), which includes the Educational Welfare Service (EWS), is under the remit of my department since 2021.

The primary role of the EWS is to ensure that every child either attends school regularly or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.

The data published by Tusla recently shows that in the 2022/2023 school year, over 110,000 primary and 65,000 post-primary students missed 20 or more days of school.

This data is hugely alarming. Regular attendance in school is essential not just for academic achievement, but for wellbeing, social development and long-term life outcomes.

On the 19th May I announced my plan to revise the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, to strengthen statutory supports for young children, including bringing children under 6 attending primary school within its scope to ensure earlier intervention. I also announced a comprehensive suite of targeted and universal actions to improve attendance in our schools. Among the key initiatives I am introducing are:

• 'Anseo' – a new evidence-based framework to help schools analyse and respond to attendance data, to be rolled out in 60 schools following a successful pilot
• A national multi media campaign, launching this September which will promote the importance of regular school attendance to students, parents and guardians
• Continued investment in the Educational Welfare Service, including expansion of educational welfare officer capacity
• Promotion of the benefits for children and young people of being present in school on each school day.
• A national Attendance Conference in early 2026 to share best practices and promote whole-system engagement.
• A scoping project to deliver real-time attendance data for better decision-making and intervention.
• Continued investment in the School Completion Programme and better planning between the School Completion Programme and the range of supports available through the non-formal education sector in youth so that the range of young people’s needs during school days, school holidays and weekends can be best planned for and met.
• Work across relevant Government Departments to embed attendance as a priority from early childhood onwards.