Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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216. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures her Department is taking to address the rise in absenteeism in Cork secondary schools, where the percentage of school days lost has increased from 8% in 2019/2020 to 11.8% in 2023/2024. [53657/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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218. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the supports that are being put in place for schools to tackle the issue of unexplained absences, which accounted for 43% of recorded absences in Cork secondary schools in 2023/2024. [53659/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 216 and 218 together.

In May, I announced a range of measures to tackle school absenteeism. These measures are a key part of my plan to ensure that every child can achieve their full potential, regardless of their background or their ability. Regular attendance in school is essential, not just for academic achievement, but for wellbeing, social development and long-term life outcomes.

Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my Department and 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.

TESS has developed a 5-year plan (2023-2028) to improve school attendance nationally. Initiatives in the plan include improved data collection and analysis, expansion of the Anseo framework to all schools over the next three years, research and policy development, attendance initiatives and the continued development of the service delivery of the three TESS strands.

Anseo is a school-level support, providing an actionable attendance tool for schools, using a three-tiered model. Schools can identify patterns of absenteeism at the student, class and whole-school level and develop nuanced and timely responses to drivers of school absenteeism.

The Anseo model was trialed in four schools during the 2023/24 school year and it is now being extended to 60 additional schools from the start of the current school year. The Anseo team will support schools in recognising the value of using attendance data to implement effective, whole-school strategies to help improve student attendance. There are 6 schools in Co. Cork participating in this phase. The aim is to roll the framework out to all schools by 2028.

A multimedia campaign launched towards the end of September. This campaign aims to raise awareness of the school attendance issue with parents and guardians by communicating the many benefits for children and young people of daily attendance at school. The campaign also signposts supports for families who may be experiencing school attendance problems.

Across the State, there are 159 educational welfare officers, 528 school based HSCL coordinators and staff in 121 SCP local projects who continue to work closely to ensure that, where there is a particular issue around school attendance, parents, guardians and children get the support they need.

I will be bringing forward an amendment to the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 that will bring all children under the age of 6 attending recognised primary schools within the scope of the Act. This legislative change will ensure children under the age of 6 years, attending recognised schools, can access the supports of the Education Welfare Service.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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217. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a county-by-county breakdown of secondary school absenteeism levels for each of the past five years, including the percentage of students missing more than 20 days per year. [53658/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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These figures can be found in the annual AAR-SAR report published by Tusla and past reports can be found here:

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

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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219. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will report on the outcomes of the multimedia campaign on school attendance launched with Tusla Education Support Service, and whether her Department has set attendance targets to measure its effectiveness. [53660/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my department and 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 May I announced a range of new measures to tackle school absenteeism. Among the key initiatives is a multimedia campaign on school attendance, which has been developed by my department and TESS in consultation with key stakeholders. The campaign is one element of a 5-year plan for school attendance developed by TESS.

The multimedia campaign aims to raise awareness of the school attendance issue with parents and guardians, to communicate the many positive benefits that daily attendance at school provides for our children and young people and to signpost the available supports for schools, parents and guardians.

TESS is undertaking pre and post media campaign evaluation to assess the attitudinal and behavioural changes to school attendance as a result of the multimedia campaign.

In addition, the Economic and Social Research Institute has been engaged by TESS to complete a joint research programme on school attendance data, policy and practice in Ireland, an evaluation of the Anseo framework and a research paper on the long-term effects of school absenteeism. Developing a better understanding of the drivers of school absence and the impact on children through research and improved data collection will greatly assist schools and services.

The 2023/24 school year attendance report shows some improvements in attendance from the 2022/23 school year attendance report. TESS will continue to collect and publish attendance data in line with the Education (Welfare) Act 2000.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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220. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if Tusla will expand resources for its Education Support Service in Cork, in view of the increase in secondary school absenteeism reported in the agency's own data. [53661/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In May, I announced a range of measures to tackle school absenteeism. These measures are a key part of my plan to ensure that every child can achieve their full potential, regardless of their background or their ability. Regular attendance in school is essential, not just for academic achievement, but for wellbeing, social development and long-term life outcomes.

Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my Department and 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.

TESS currently provide a range of services in Cork including dedicated educational welfare officers (EWOs) who work with children and their families to support consistent school attendance and the HSCL scheme and SCP, operate in all DEIS urban primary and post-primary schools throughout county Cork.

Other initiatives developed in response to concerning rates of absenteeism include:

• TESS 5- year plan for school attendance 2023-2028 to improve school attendance nationally. Initiatives in the plan include improved data collection and analysis, expansion of the Anseo framework to all schools over the next three years, research and policy development, attendance initiatives and the continued development of the service delivery of the three TESS strands.
• Development of the Anseo framework, a school-level support, providing an actionable attendance tool for schools, using a three-tiered model. Schools can identify patterns of absenteeism at the student, class and whole-school level and develop nuanced and timely responses to drivers of school absenteeism.
• The Anseo model was trialed in four schools during the 2023/24 school year, and it is now being extended to 60 additional schools from the start of the current school year. The Anseo team in TESS will support schools in recognising the value of using attendance data to implement effective, whole-school strategies to help improve student attendance. There are 6 schools in Co. Cork participating in this phase. The aim is to roll the framework out to all schools by 2028.
• Multimedia campaign on school attendance which launched at the end of September. This campaign aims to raise awareness of the school attendance issue with parents and guardians by communicating the many benefits for children and young people of daily attendance at school. The campaign also signposts supports for families who may be experiencing school attendance problems.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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221. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills how Tusla categorises and verifies "unexplained absences" in school attendance data, and what proportion of these cases receive follow-up engagement with families. [53662/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tackling school absences is a key part of my plan to ensure that every child can achieve their full potential. Regular attendance in school is essential not just for academic achievement, but for wellbeing, social development and long-term life outcomes.

Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my department and 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.

Under the Act, schools report to Tusla twice a year on all students who have missed 20 cumulative days or more of school for any reason. Data collected is used to provide statistical reports on school absence for those aged between 6 and 16 years. Data is provided to TESS from schools under absence categories including unexplained absences. It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to provide an explanation for the absence, and the school must have an attendance policy stating the method by which a parent provides explanations and the procedures that the school employs to follow up on absences.

Where a school has a cause for concern in relation to a student's attendance, a formal referral can be made to the Educational Welfare Service (EWS). All referrals received by the EWS are screened and assessed by a Senior Education Welfare Officer (SEWO) and receive a response. Referrals with significant unexplained absences are prioritised for follow up engagement by an allocated educational welfare officer (EWO). The school will also be asked to document interventions already made in line with their school attendance strategy and DEIS schools will be asked to include additional interventions deployed, for example, interventions by the HSCL coordinator or the SCP project worker.

During the first 10 months of the 2024/25 school year, 9,059 referrals were screened by a SEWO.