Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my department, and operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, a piece of legislation that emphasises the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention.
Section 21 (6) of the Act provides that all recognised primary and post primary schools, including special schools, submit an Annual Attendance Report to TESS on student non-attendance at an aggregated level, within six weeks of the end of the school year.
The Annual Attendance Report (AAR) provides four pieces of data in respect of all students enrolled in the school;
• total days lost by all students,
• total students absent for 20 or more days,
• total students suspended,
• total students expelled at the school level.
In accordance with Section 21 (4) of the Act, Student Absence Reports (SARs) are submitted to TESS by recognised schools and provide data only on those students aged over 6 years and under 16 years, who are absent for a cumulative total of 20 or more days in the school year, by the recorded reason for their absence. The recorded absence reasons are; illness, urgent, holiday, suspension or other. The SAR was first published for the 2017/18 school year.
TESS does not collate data in relation to suspensions outside of the statutory reporting by schools detailed above.
The AAR and SAR reports are published and are available on Tusla’s website at the following link: www.tusla.ie/services/educational-welfare-services/publications/research-and-statistics
