Tusla issue parents of more than 200 children with legal proceedings over school attendance

More than 200 children's parents or guardians have been issued with legal proceedings by Tusla over their school attendance.

Parents or guardians have a legal obligation to make sure that the child in their care attends school, or that they receive an education elsewhere. If Tusla feels that a child is being neglected in this area, they send the parent or guardian a warning letter called a 'School Attendance Notice'. According to RedFm, the Child and Family Agency issued these in connection with 778 individual children between January 2018 to August 2019. Court summonses relating to 212 individual children were also issued during that period. Paul Downes, the director of the educational disadvantage centre at Dublin City University, noted that the figures were "much too high." "This legal proceedings approach was supposed to be an approach of last resort - and I think it shows that there's a system failure taking place," he said. "The concern is that the lack of support facilities being put in place for these children and their families means that maybe the legal route then becomes an option being used too often - rather than the other kind of supports that might need to go in place before this".