Thirty convictions over poor school attendance

About 30 court convictions were secured against parents of children with poor attendance records at schools last year by the National Educational Welfare Board.

The Educational Welfare Service worked with a total of 20,000 children with school attendance difficulties in 2012.

Of this figure, 3,000 of these cases involved children with “serious attendance difficulties”.

A total of 132 court summonses were issued by the board last year, resulting in 30 convictions. Five resulted in prison sentences, all of which were suspended.

Seventeen cases resulted in fines while the remaining eight, although convictions, are still before the courts.

A spokeswoman for the board confirmed while the service engaged with a total of 20,000 children last year, “only a minority of these cases proceed to court”.

“These are cases where parents have refused to engage with the Educational and Welfare Service and fail in their duty to ensure their child has attended school.”

At Limerick District Court yesterday, a woman whose 15-year-old daughter missed over 60% of school days in a 10-week period last year pleaded guilty to breaching a school attendance notice.

Judge Eugene O’Kelly adjourned the case until Apr 5.