Published date:
Since my appointment as the Independent Autism Reviewer for Northern Ireland a consistent and predominant issue has been the challenges autistic and neurodivergent pupils face in accessing school regularly and consistently.
The Education Authority for Northern Ireland (‘EANI’) has the power to initiate criminal proceedings against parents for failure to secure their child’s regular attendance at school under Article 45 and Schedule 13 (‘the parental prosecution offence’) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (‘the Order’).
Within the context of school attendance, the prosecution of parents is a recurrent point of concern, as well as confusion, for many families. Ongoing engagement with my Office led me to consider the attendance enforcement framework itself.
Consequently, I undertook a high-level scoping exercise of the Order and this report sets out my findings.