A higher proportion of children in care enrolled at primary school in the academic year 2021/22 were enrolled in a special school or in a special class attached to a mainstream primary school (14%) compared with all children (3%).
Utilising available and relevant enrolment records, 6% of children in care enrolled at school repeated one or more school years in primary or post primary education, compared with just under 2% of all children.
In the academic year 2018/2019 a higher proportion of children in care were absent from primary or post primary school for more than 20 days (11%) compared with all children (7%).
Of the children in care who started post primary education between 2012 and 2015, 28% left school early without completing the Leaving Certificate. The percentage for all children was lower at 8%.
Approximately 90% of both children who left care and all children (and aged 18 to 22 by January 2023 for either group) were in substantial employment, enrolled in school, or in further or higher education for each of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.
More specifically, for children that left care since April 2018 and were aged 18 to 22 by January 2023, 37% were enrolled in further education and 15% in higher education in 2021, where some in further education may have subsequently progressed to higher education.
Of all children that were also aged 18 to 22 by January 2023, 11% were enrolled in further education and 37% in higher education in 2021.
In this report, of the 9,744 children in care during January 2023 or children who left care since April 2018, 77% (or 7,534) were successfully linked to other pseudonymised administrative data sources including Revenue, Department of Education and the Department of Social Protection among others. This report presents a statistical educational thematic overview of the linked children in care only.
As well as the strict legal protections set out in the Statistics Act, 1993, and other existing regulations, the CSO is committed to protecting individual privacy and all identifiable information from each of the data sources used in our analysis. Names, date of birth and addresses, are removed before use and only anonymised statistical aggregates are produced. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and definitions of this report, see Background and Methodology.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (2 August 2023) released Educational Attendance and Attainment of Children in Care, 2018-2023.
This release looks at educational attendance and attainment of children in care in January 2023 and children who left care since April 2018. This is a pilot release published as a CSO Frontier Series which means particular care must be taken when interpreting the data.
This release is based on administrative data provided to the CSO from Tusla, the Department of Education, the Department for Social Protection, SOLAS, Quality and Qualifications Ireland, the Higher Education Authority and the Revenue Commissioner.
This report contains data divided over four chapters, detailing general characteristics, educational attendance, educational attainment, and further outcomes of children in care and all children. In this release the term ‘all children’ includes children in care. See Background and Methodology for the definition of 'all children'.
Commenting on the report, Karola Graupner, Statistician in the Statistical Systems Coordination Unit, said:
"This pilot Frontier Series release provides insights into educational attendance and attainment of children in care in January 2023 and children who left care since April 2018 and compares them to all children.
Children can enter care with the voluntary agreement of their parents or under a court order. When a child is in the care of Tusla, the child can be placed in foster care, including relative foster care, in residential care or in special care.
Primary and Post Primary Education
Looking at the results, we can see that overall, a higher proportion of children in care enrolled at primary school in the academic year 2021/22 were enrolled in a special school or in a special class attached to a mainstream primary school. This was 14% of children in care compared with 3% of all children.
Utilising available and relevant enrolment records, 6% of children in care enrolled in school repeated one or more school years in primary or post primary education, compared with just under 2% of all children.
In the academic year 2018/19, a higher proportion of children in care were absent from primary or post primary school for more than 20 days at 11% compared with 7% of all children.
Of the children in care who started post primary education between 2012 and 2015, 28% left school early without completing the Leaving Certificate. The percentage for all children was lower at 8%.
Leaving Certificate and Beyond
Approximately 90% of both children who left care and all children (and aged 18 to 22 by January 2023 for either group) were in substantial employment, enrolled in school, or in further or higher education for each of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.
More specifically, for children that left care since April 2018 and were aged 18 to 22 by January 2023, 37% were enrolled in further education and 15% in higher education in 2021, where some in further education may have subsequently progressed to higher education.
Of all children that were also aged 18 to 22 by January 2023, 11% were enrolled in further education and 37% in higher education in 2021.
However, among children who left care since April 2018 and were aged 18 and over by January 2023, those that left school without completing the Leaving Certificate, were less likely to be in either substantial employment or education in 2021 (66%) compared with those who did not leave school early (95%)."