Huge rise in court summonses over school attendance

Tusla’s second quarterly integrated performance and activity report this year shows that 133 summonses were issued in respect of 96 children between September 2016 and June of this year. 

The comparable figure for the 2015/16 school year was just 24 summonses in relation to 21 children.

Before summonses are issued, official warnings or school attendance notices (SANs) are issued by schools and the figures for 2016/17 show that in the last school year 603 SANS were issued in respect of 417 children. The comparable figure in 2015/16 was 166 SANS in respect of 112 children.

Tusla school attendance data for primary and post-primary schools for 2015/16 was published yesterday and showed the overall percentage of student days lost was 5.9% at primary level and 7.9% at secondary level. The overall increases were relatively modest, while 12.3% of primary pupils were absent for 20 or more days in the school year — up 1.2% on the figures for 2014/15 — and 14.9% of students at second level missed 20 days or more, which is down 1.3% on the previous school year and the lowest level in a five-year period.

The Tusla data, compiled by the Educational Welfare Services (EWS), also shows that in the last school year, 3,268 new children worked with the EWS, almost three times the number in 2015/16.

A total of 5,440 referrals were screened by senior educational welfare officers (EWO) over the period. There were 3,189 referrals allocated to EWOs in the last school year and there were 1,273 screened referrals on a waiting list at the end of the school year in June.

Parents can be jailed for failing to ensure children attend school and the data shows EWOs attended 398 court cases in the last school year and another 21 court cases in a supporting capacity, typically at the request of social work services. The overlap with that aspect of child welfare was evident in the 218 child protection conferences attended by EWOs in the last school year. Also, 184 official child protection and welfare referrals were made by EWOs between September 2016 and last June.