Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), which includes the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS), is under the remit of my Department and operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000.

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

Where a school has cause for concern over a child’s attendance a formal referral can be made to TESS. TESS also accepts referral from parents and other agencies. All referrals received by TESS are screened and assessed by a Senior Educational Welfare Officer and receive a response. Tusla publishes performance data, available at and this includes the latest data on referrals screened by TESS.

In line with the Education (Welfare) Act of 2000, 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.

The second, the School Absence Reports (SAR), are submitted by a school as a pupil-level report. These reports provide data on those students aged over six and under 16 who are absent for a cumulative total of 20 or more days by the reason for their absence. The SAR was first published for the 2017/18 school year. These reports are published on Tusla’s website and can be accessed using the following link: www.tusla.ie/services/educational-welfare-services/publications/research-and-statistics .

The aim of my department is to meet the needs of families and to ensure every child is allocated a suitable school placement. The preferred approach is that children are educated in school settings where children may have access to fully qualified teachers, individualised education programmes, special needs assistants, school curriculum with the option, where possible and appropriate, of full or partial integration and interaction with student peers.

The following table outlines the number of applications which were sanctioned for home tuition for the 2025/26 school year. It is important to note that in relation to children seeking a special school or class place, the number that were sanctioned is not an indicator of the number of children currently without a school place. Of the 144 children transitioning or requiring a special education needs placement (SEN), the majority are transitioning to a placement or are attending an educational setting provided by a private group provider.

Home tuition can be required for a variety reasons such as for children who are transitioning into a placement, or children who have recently moved location or are new into the country and are being supported to find a new placement or for children whose placement may be breaking down and they are being supported to seek a new placement. The National Council for Special Education advise that there are available places in special classes around the country and will continue to support children seeking a placement during the school year.

Year	SEN	Mental Health	Medical	No School Places, Children in Care, Maternity Related Absences	Total
2025/2026*	519	54	23	37	633

* Information as of 16th September 2025