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.