Mar 2, 2025, The Journal: 'Lack of supports' leads to more students given reduced school hours
THE NUMBER OF students moved to reduced school days increased by over 20% in the last school year.
A total of 1,275 students in primary and secondary school had these arrangements put in place for the first time in the 2023/24 school year, the latest government figures show. This was up from 1,044 the previous year.
These arrangements should only be used in “exceptional circumstances”, according to the Department of Education, but impact a disproportionate number of Traveller and Roma children as well as students with special educational needs.
Over 80% of primary school pupils and over 40% of secondary school students moved to reduced school days had special educational needs.
As part of our award-winning TOUGH START investigation in 2021 which exposed the uphill battle facing Traveller children, The Journal Investigates found the “misuse” of reduced school days was leaving a generation of students “lost”.
New guidelines are in place since then but advocates told The Journal Investigates that a lack of appropriate supports is leading to this measure still being used. . . .
Adam Harris, CEO of autism charity As I Am, said they were “very dissatisfied” that when “an autistic child’s support needs aren’t met within a school, they’re very often dealt with using this punitive measure”.
It is positive that more children are accessing diagnoses, he said, but they “haven’t actually seen the corresponding proportional increase in support”.
“It’s difficult to think of another category of disability whereby” reduced school days would be used in this way, he added.
Unless it’s something that’s time bound and with the best interest of the child, very often, the reality is it’s suspension by another name.
Harris also said that part of the increase could be because reduced school days may be more “proactively reported” with the new system which was implemented in 2021.
This is the reason the Department of Education gave for the numbers rising “from 0.11% to 0.13% of the student population”. A spokesperson told us:
“Given that the requirement to report the use of reduced school days is relatively recent, this increase is largely attributable to greater awareness and reporting.”
Anne Burke, chairperson of the Cork Traveller Education Unit, said that it is one of “several forms of exclusion” that Traveller children face in schools.
She said that schools often put Travellers on reduced school days as they are “not interested” in accommodating students or “say they don’t have the resources”.
For Travellers, the use of this measure is “not for learning difficulties, it’s for behavioural issues”, Burke explained.
I see Traveller children who are the loveliest children in the world acting out in school because that’s their way of communicating their unhappiness.
The implementation of the Traveller and Roma Education Strategy launched last July will help with this, she said.
Inclusivity in schools is key and Burke is already involved in the training of teachers in Traveller culture and anti-racism. More Traveller teachers are also needed, she said, as Travellers don’t currently “see themselves in the system”.
The Department spokesperson said that “guidelines clearly state that reduced school days should not be used as a sanction, offered as an alternative to a sanction, or used as a behavioral management tool”.
They should also only ever be put in place “for very limited and time-bound circumstances”. Students on reduced school days either start later, leave earlier or attend for less than five days a week.
The spokesperson said they can be a “positive intervention” if used appropriately and cited cases such as “supporting a student to return to school after a period of absence, or due to a medical or mental health-related condition”.
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