Big Offaly schools receive DEIS status in education shake-up
19 Offaly schools have received DEIS status, Education Minister Norma Foley has confirmed.
18 primary schools and one post-primary school in Offaly will now have DEIS status in Offaly, availing of extra supports and programmes from the Department of Education.
"I am delighted to receive confirmation from my colleague Norma Foley TD, Minister for Education of €32 million in investment for a major expansion of the DEIS Programme, Offaly TD Barry Cowen said.
"Thank you to Minister Foley and her staff for working with me so closely on this over the last year and a half."
Schools received notification from the Department of Education that they are to be included in the DEIS programme recently. Further details will be sent to these schools in the coming weeks.
A Department of Education statement explained: "The DEIS programme is the Department’s main policy initiative to respond to educational disadvantage.
"The DEIS programme focuses on targeting additional resources to those schools included in the programme to ensure every child has an equal opportunity to achieve their potential.
"Schools coming into DEIS will be provided with access to supports which are the same as those provided to schools currently in the programme."
It continued: "Resources available under the DEIS programme are used by schools to provide their students with the support and opportunities that they may not otherwise be available to them.
"Some of the supports that schools in DEIS get are home-school community liaison support to build a positive relationships between the student’s home and school lives and an enhanced school book grant rate to ease the financial burden on families and schools."