I had to come get her.”From the Kerry mum’s perspective, her daughter’s school avoidance happened overnight 18 months ago. Sheila Clarke: 'Post-pandemic, we’re seeing alarming rates of absence. In 2024-2025, the service’s educational welfare officers worked with 8,259 individual children around school avoidance. Parent coach Margaret Gilbert: 'With school avoidance, children are coming from a genuinely emotionally distressed place.' “Social media plays a part, something happening outside school spills into their not wanting to go in.”Antoinette has seen “school can’t” play out in her office.

Source: Irish Examiner March 03, 2026 08:00 UTC