Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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521. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide statistics of school attendance for primary and post primary students the day before a bank holiday, in tabular form. [29189/25]

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.

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

The Annual Attendance Report (AAR) 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.

The Student Absence Report (SAR), is submitted by a school twice a year as a student-level report and provides data on those students aged over six and under sixteen absent for a cumulative total of 20 or more days by the reason for their absence.

The reports are published on the Tusla website at the following link:

www.tusla.ie/services/educational-welfare-services/publications/research-and-statistics .

Data is not collected for specific days of the week, including the day before a bank holiday.