Almost 3,500 notices issued to families over school absenteeism

Almost 830 court summonses were issued in the last seven years to the parents or guardians of children for repeated absences o from school.

Almost 3,500 notices have been issued over the course of seven years "as a last resort" to families after children were absent from school 20 days or more.

Figures provided to the Irish Examiner by Tusla, the State agency responsible for ensuring that children attend school regularly, show that 3,444 school attendance notices were issued to the families of 2,201 individual children between 2015 and 2021.

Any child who misses 20 school days must be reported by law, and schools are legally required to report such absences to Tusla twice a year.

Almost 830 court summonses were issued during the same timeframe to the parents or guardians of 555 individual children for repeated absences of their child from school.

The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 requires the principal of a recognised school to maintain records of the attendance or non-attendance on each school day of each registered student.

Where schools have a concern about a child’s attendance they are required to make a referral to the Tusla Education Welfare Service.

Figures show that 29813 referrals have been made to the service since 2017.

A spokeswoman for Tusla said absences from school can be a complex issue, individual to each child and family.

Tusla educational welfare officers (EWO) throughout the country are there to provide support and advice to parents and schools and to follow up on absences, she added. EWOs take a “supportive welfare-based approach” and work in a child-centered way to overcome barriers to attendance, participation and retention, she added.

"School absences often requires an integrated response and EWOs work closely with schools, educational support services, and other agencies to support school attendance," said the Tusla spokeswoman. "This is done through home visits, educational welfare conferences and collaboratively working with different agencies.”

 Where all supportive interventions have been exhausted and it is determined that a parent fails in his or her duty to ensure that their child attends school, then the EWO has the power to take legal action against the parent under the Education (Welfare) Act 2000.

“It is important to emphasise that this is an action of last resort when all other offers of support have failed and it is very rare that cases reach this point,” said the Tusla spokeswoman.

 “There is a significant difference between the numbers of school attendance notices issued and the summons issued.

 “This demonstrates that the school attendance notice, which is only issued after all other efforts exhausted, is an effective tool as a last resort that educational welfare officers can use to promote school attendance.”