A higher proportion of children in care enrolled at primary school in the academic year 2023/24 were enrolled in a special school or in a special class attached to a mainstream primary school (15%) compared with all children (4%).
In the academic year 2023/2024 a higher proportion of children in care were absent from primary or post-primary school for 20 or more days (17%) compared with all children (14%).
Of the children in care who started post-primary education between 2013 and 2017, 29% left school early without completing the Leaving Certificate or Leaving Certificate Applied. The percentage for all children was lower at 8%.
Of the children who left care and were aged 18-24 years in January 2025, 27% were enrolled in further education and 17% in higher education in 2023. For all children of the same age group, 7% were in further education and 39% were in higher education.
By January 2025, 12.2% of women who left care aged 18-24 were recorded as having a child compared to 3.5% of all women in the same age group.
The median weekly earnings of children who left care aged 18 to 24 (in January 2025) who were in substantial employment in 2023 was €300 compared with €330 for all children of the same age group.
Children who left care aged 18-24 years (in January 2025) who were enrolled in higher education in 2023 were more likely to have been in further education the previous year (12%) than all children of the same age group (3%).
Children who left care aged 18-24 (in January 2025) were more likely to be enrolled in Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses (8%) and Youthreach courses (5%) in 2023 than all children at 3% and 1% respectively.
In this release, of the 11,214 children in care during January 2025 or children who left care since April 2018, 9,172 (or 82%) were successfully linked to other pseudonymised administrative data sources including datasets from the Revenue Commissioners, Department of Education and Youth and the Department of Social Protection among others. This release presents a statistical educational thematic overview of the linked children in care only. The percentage successfully linked (82%) is an increase on the 81% linked in the 2024 release.
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, matching procedures and definitions of this release, see Background Notes.
Note that rounding is used throughout this release so percentages may not add up to 100.
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 (02 December 2025) published Educational Attendance, Attainment and Other Outcomes of Children in Care, 2018-2025.
This release looks at educational attendance and attainment of children in care in January 2025 and children who left care since April 2018. 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.
This is a CSO Frontier Series which means particular care must be taken when interpreting the data. This is the third release in the series, the first was published on 02 August 2023 and the second on 19 November 2024. Both are available here.
This release is based on administrative data provided to the CSO from Tusla, the Department of Education and Youth, the Department of Social Protection, SOLAS, Quality and Qualifications Ireland, the Higher Education Authority, POBAL, the State Examinations Commission, Student Universal Support Ireland and the Revenue Commissioners.
It contains data divided over four chapters, detailing general characteristics, educational attendance, educational attainment, and further outcomes of children in care and all children in the same age group. In this release the term ‘all children’ includes children in care as well as children not in care (See Background Notes for the definition of 'all children').
Commenting on the release, Aideen Sheehan, Statistician in the Statistical Systems Coordination Unit, said:
"This Frontier Series release provides insights into educational attendance and attainment of children in care in January 2025 and children who left care since April 2018 and compares them with all children and young people in the same age group by analysing school, further/higher education and employment outcomes for both groups.
Primary and Post-Primary Education
Overall, we can see a higher proportion of children in care enrolled at primary school in the academic year 2023/24 were enrolled in a special school or in a special class attached to a mainstream primary school. This was 15% of children in care compared with 4% of all children.
Utilising relevant enrolment records, 7% of children in care enrolled in school repeated one or more school years in primary or post-primary education, compared with 2% of all children.
In the academic year 2023/24, a higher proportion of children in care were absent from primary or post-primary school for 20 or more days, at 17% compared with 14% of all children.
Of the children in care who started post-primary education between 2013 and 2017, 29% left school early without completing the Leaving Certificate or Leaving Certificate Applied. The percentage for all children was lower at 8%.
Leaving Certificate and Beyond
In 2023, 81% of children who left care and 89% of all children (aged 18-24 years in January 2025) were in substantial employment, enrolled in school, or in further or higher education.
More specifically, for children who left care who were aged 18-24 years by January 2025, 27% were enrolled in further education and 17% in higher education in 2023, compared with 34% and 13% in 2022.
In 2023, of all children in the same age group (18-24 years in January 2025), 7% were enrolled in further education, down from 10% in 2022, while 39% were enrolled in higher education, up from 32% in 2022.
Amongst children who left care since April 2018, those who left school early without completing the Leaving Certificate were less likely to be in either substantial employment, education, or a combination of both in 2023 at 58%, compared with 86% of those who did not leave school early."