Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 April 2023
490. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the procedures in place to ensure minors residing in direct provision centres are enrolled in education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19557/23]
View answerThere are three full time, dedicated Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) Education Welfare Officers (EWOs) working with the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) to provide assistance with school placements for children living in IPAS accommodation centres. Where there are no school places available in the vicinity, which does occur, children are facilitated in the next nearest school with space, and applications are made for school transport.
The current process is as follows:
The TESS IPAS EWO communicates with the centre manager and provides information and assistance to families regarding enrolment of children in schools. They then continue to engage weekly with managers and families at the centre to provide further support where required.
Where further support to secure a school place is needed, the IPAS EWO contacts a Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT) Co-ordinator and requests their assistance in supporting the families regarding enrolment. The EWO exchanges anonymised information including profile of families, numbers of children, etc who haven’t found school places.
REALT Co-ordinators do not have primary responsibility for supporting the enrolment of International Protection (IP) children. They provide ancillary support to the existing TESS EWOs who work with IPAS.
The REALT Co-ordinator records relevant information (pre-enrolment) to secure a school place for the child and engages with the local TESS EWO, Regional NCSE (National Council for Special Education) and NEPS (National Education Psychologist Service) members of the local REALT, as required.
TUSLA has statutory powers to designate the school in accordance with the Education Act (as amended). Where the REALT Co-ordinator does not succeed in sourcing a school place, TESS will take responsibility for the case to ensure that a child has access to education in line with the provisions of the EU Directive. REALT reports to the Dept. Education where capacity has been reached.
From an IPAS perspective, if an IP or their representative organisation wish to raise a query regarding school placements, they may contact the Helpdesk at IPAS through the dedicated email address (IPASinbox@equality.gov.ie) and the query may be referred as appropriate to TESS.
