March 2005
Small Number of School Attendance Notices To Go Out This Week

Taking legal action is a very serious matter and is taken only if parents do not co-operate with Educational Welfare Officers and if is beneficial for the child, says National Educational Welfare Board.

The National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), the agency with responsibility for ensuring that children attend school regularly or receive an education, will issue the first School Attendance Notices (SAN) to parents this week.

School Attendance Notices are legal notices requiring the parent to send the child to a named school for a specified period of time. They are the very first step in taking legal action against parents who have failed over time to co-operate with Educational Welfare Officers (EWO) to ensure that their children attend school and where the trained EWO feels that parents could do more to uphold their children’s right to an education.

“Taking legal action against a parent is a very serious matter at any time and there must be a clear view that it will leave the family, and importantly, the child, in a better position,” explained Eddie Ward, CEO of the NEWB. “This is the thinking behind the legal sanctions on school attendance contained in the Education (Welfare) Act 2000. By issuing these first School Attendance Notices, we are following through on the Act, but are doing so only after consideration, compassion and commonsense have prevailed.”

He outlined that every child is entitled to receive an education and that it is up to parents and guardians to send their children to school regularly unless there is a good reason not to. If they fail in this duty, they are breaking the law and so can be prosecuted.

“If parents who receive these School Attendance Notices send their children to school regularly, the legal proceedings will go no further,” he explained. “If, however, they breach the notice and continue to keep their child out of education, the case may result in court proceedings,” Ward said.

“We know that the vast majority of parents want the best for their children. Sometimes, however, circumstances mean that education is not a priority within some families. Our primary job is to work with parents and guardians to help ensure that they have the supports to get their children to school. That is what we will continue to concentrate on and we expect that SANs will form a tiny proportion of our work only.”