Almost 8,000 referrals to Tusla over poor school attendance in last year

Almost 1,070 such referrals had been made by the end of October for the current school year.

Where a school principal is concerned about a pupil’s attendance, and has run out of in-school interventions, an educational welfare referral can be made to TESS.

This compares to just 6,310 reports between August 2018 and September 2019, and 4,472 between September 2019 and August 2020.

It comes as thousands of students missed out on at least a month of school last year, prompting concerns amongst inspectors about poor attendance rates post-covid.

More than a quarter of all primary school students, and more than a fifth of all post-primary students, missed out on 20 or more school days during the 2022/23 school year.

The problem is particularly marked in disadvantaged areas.

Of “particular concern” to school inspectors is that 43% of primary school students, and 30% of post-primary school students in schools with the highest levels of disadvantage missed 20 school days or more. 

Partial attendance at school can be a precursor towards more significant issues that may lead to early school leaving.

Prior to the pandemic, the average percentage of primary pupils who missed more than 20 days of school per year was 11.6%, while the equivalent for post-primary students was 15%.

It is widely accepted that poor school attendance leads to early school leaving, poorer exam results, and makes the transition to post-primary school more difficult.

By law, schools are obliged to submit annual attendance reports to TESS.

Schools are also required to submit student absence reports twice each year about students with serious attendance issues.

Figures provided to the Irish Examiner by Tusla show almost 2,450 students have been flagged by principals for this poor attendance since August 2018.

Between August 2023 and September 2024, more than 680 such reports were made to Tusla.

This is broadly in line with the number reported prior to the pandemic, when 672 such reports were made by September 2019.

However, this figure dropped significantly during 2020 and 2021 while school closures and Covid-19 restrictions were in place, falling to 320 during 2020, and 122 during 2021.

Schools are obliged to report when students have missed 20 days or more including in cases of illness, and students were required to isolate and stay home from school during the pandemic when they had symptoms of Covid-19.

A further 600 parents have been summoned to court since 2018 over their child’s poor school attendance.

Tusla does not hold data on convictions in relation to school attendance.

A brief breakdown on the school attendance figures for 2022/23 were included in the recently published Department of Education Inspectorate Report.

Full data for the school year 2022/23 on school attendance is due to be published soon, a spokesman for Tulsa confirmed.

Absences from school can be a complex issue, which is individual to that child and family, he added.

“Tusla employs educational welfare officers throughout the country to provide support and advice to parents and schools and to follow up on absences.” 

 These officers take a welfare-based approach, working with families in a child-centred way to overcome barriers to their school attendance, participation and retention, he added.

“School absences often require an integrated response and EWOs work closely with schools, educational support services and other agencies to support school attendance, this is done through home visits, educational welfare conferences and collaboratively working with different agencies."