Department provides update amid concerns over Summer Programme approval delays
The Department of Education and Youth has said that all approval letters for schools and home-based applicants for a vital summer educational programme will be issued shortly.
There have been concerns over both a reduced timeframe for applications and delays in approval for the Summer Programme, a key resource for children with complex special educational needs and those at risk of educational disadvantage.
The educational programme comprises either school-based or home-based provision, and parents have expressed concerns that the delays in approvals means increased difficulty in securing suitable teachers for the home-based programme.
The Department said, in a statement, that the sanction letters for home-based applicants will "issue to parents in the coming days".
It added that all schools who are registered to run the programme will receive their sanction letters "as soon as possible".
A department spokesperson said schools were informed that sanction letters would be issued to them, starting in the week beginning May 25.
"These sanction letters outline the staffing allocations for schools to run their programme based on the level of need in their school. Priority was to issue these sanction letters to post primary schools in the first instance as they will be running their programmes first."
However, the spokesperson said: "All schools who are registered to run the programme will receive their sanction letters as soon as possible."
The department said there had been a major increase in applications in recent years.
"Since 2019, the Summer Programme has gone from strength to strength. More than 1,800 schools and almost 71,000 children participated in the 2025 Summer Programme. This is compared to approximately 545 schools and almost 23,000 children who participated in 2020, an increase of 210% in child participation alone."
Details of the 2026 summer programme were published on May 6, and applications closed on May 15.
"The Department has continually kept in touch with stakeholders querying when the summer programme might be announced to ensure they understood that it would be forthcoming and schools should start their preparations. In addition, all stakeholders and schools were advised of the strict deadline for receipt of applications from schools," the spokesperson said.
Defending the reduced timeframe for applications, the department said: "The summer programme is well established for a number of years now, so even though there was a shorter window for applications, schools were prepared in advance, and the Department has received more applications for the school based scheme this year than ran it in 2025, with increases across primary, post primary, and special schools. In addition, the number of home-based applications has significantly increased on last year."
The department added that the Minister "Ministers listened to the concerns of schools who wanted to apply after the deadline" and the portal reopened for a short period between Tuesday, June 2, and Friday, June 5, to allow further schools to apply.