Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 April 2026
518. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Education and Youth if NEPS plans to review the Supporting your Child when they are Reluctant to Attend School Guidance documents to include specific advice for neurodivergent children. [29581/26]
View answerSupporting your Child when they are Reluctant to Attend School guidance document was published with the accompanying Managing Reluctant Attendance and School Avoidance Behaviour: A Good Practice Guide for Primary/Post Primary Schools in 2023. These guidance documents were developed in response to needs identified by schools and parents/guardians. These documents offer practical frameworks and sample actions to support school attendance.
The guidance documents highlight a range of risk and protective factors relating to school attendance. The risk factors include school-based risk factors. The documents also highlight a range of protective factors that are also school-based including the importance of a whole-school approach to wellbeing that provides opportunities for children and young people to experience a sense of belonging and connectedness in school, to experience success in school and to experience positive relationships with peers and school staff.
The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) as a service is extremely mindful and committed to supporting universal and whole school approaches to supporting the wellbeing of all children and young people within the school community and to proactively ensure that schools are mindful of and actively providing these protective factors within their school environment. Our approach is relational and needs-led, focusing on understanding the child’s experience through collaboration with families and schools. The aim is not to attribute school avoidance to any one factor, and to recognise the importance of gathering information from all parties to inform appropriate interventions and supports.
The documents are intentional in choosing language that is inclusive and respectful. They endeavour to avoid terms such as ‘school refusal’ that would promote an exclusively within-child focus on the issue of attendance. The NEPS guidance also intentionally excludes labels/diagnostic criteria but aim instead to ensure inclusivity and avoid excluding any child based on diagnosis. Neurodiversity is referenced as one of many potential risk factors but is not explored in depth within the documents. Instead, the guidance encourages schools to consider a broad range of influences—family, school, social, and individual—and to adapt environments accordingly.
As the documents are now two years old, a planned review will be soon undertaken and officials in NEPS will consider this review with a neurodiversity lens.
