What does it mean if school decide to refer to the Education Welfare Service?

It means that school have tried to resolve their concerns about your child’s attendance but there has been no improvement. All schools have procedures that they should follow to resolve attendance problems.

Once a referral has been made to the Education Welfare Service the schools allocated Education Welfare Officer will contact you. This could be by letter, phone or by visiting your house. It is important that parents/carers work with the Education Welfare Officer to try and improve your child’s attendance.

There are many problems that can be resolved and it is important to remember this in order to get your child back into school regularly.