Thomas Gould
Question:378. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Education and Youth the supports that are available to a child in a primary school with no home-school liaison who is experiencing school refusal. [68171/26]
View answerTuesday, 29 September 2026
Questions (378)
Written answers
Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my Department. TESS operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, a piece of legislation that emphasises the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention. TESS has three strands namely the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) and the two-school support services the Home School Community Liaison scheme (HSCL) and the School Completion Programme (SCP).
The primary role of the EWS is to ensure that every child either attends school regularly or otherwise receives a certain minimum education to ensure and secure every child’s entitlement to education. Educational welfare officers (EWOs) are based throughout the country to offer advice and guidance to parents who need support in ensuring that their child attends schools regularly.
EWOs work with children, young people and their families who are experiencing difficulty with school attendance; this is done through, home visits, educational welfare conferences and collaboratively working with different agencies. The main priority of the work is around the welfare of children and young people and to ensure that concerns around school attendance are addressed before attendance becomes a crisis issue.
If a parent requires advice or guidance at any time, they can contact the local EWS regional office for their area. Contact details are available at the following link: www.tusla.ie/get-in-touch/education-and-welfare/.
In addition, my department’s National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) has developed guidance to provide schools with information on how to support children and young people who display reluctant attendance and school avoidance behaviour. The guidance aims to provides best practice for schools in working with parents and supporting their child to attend and stay in school. Psychologists also deliver training to schools based on the guidance documents. For access to this information see NEPS publications on gov.ie.