Reflecting the neglect of childhood disability in social stratification research, there is a notable dearth of research on the mechanisms underpinning disability differentials in educational outcomes. Drawing on rich longitudinal data collected at 9, 13 and 17 years as part of Ireland's ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ study, we look at the impact of special educational needs (SEN) identification in primary school on upper secondary outcomes. A bioecological framework and the Process–Person–Context–Time model allow us to understand how interactions with family, teachers, friends and school—as proximal processes—relate to early school leaving and post‐school planned pathways after accounting for personal and context characteristics. Overall, young people identified at age 9 as having SEN are at increased risk of early school leaving and are more likely to plan to attend further education and training, rather than higher education. However, after accounting for proximal processes and personal and context variables, students identified at age 9 as having SEN are no longer distinct in terms of secondary attainment and post‐school planning. Instead, these young people are more likely to experience forms of vulnerability that are important in shaping these outcomes. These key educational outcomes are strongly shaped by family and school‐related factors—both proximal processes and context characteristics—suggesting that efforts to support retention and pathway planning should be underpinned by an ecological understanding of young people's trajectories and the cumulative disadvantages they face.

While Ireland has the highest level of participation in higher education (HE) in Europe, it also has one of the widest participation gaps between disabled and non-disabled young people. Using a large-scale longitudinal dataset, we assess how disabled young people compare with non-disabled peers in accessing a range of post-school educational pathways. Extending the effectively maintained inequality perspective to disability research, our results highlight important qualitative differences in disabled people’s trajectories. Ultimately, we find greater progression to Further Education and Training, and lower participation in Level 8 degrees in universities, all else being equal. Entry to HE is lower among those with socio-emotional difficulties, even after controlling for key characteristics, while attendance among young people with an intellectual disability or specific learning difficulty is mediated by academic performance. The results highlight the importance of school attendance, engagement and achievement during the primary and early secondary years, and parental expectations, raising important implications for inclusive education. The multiple challenges facing disabled young people in Ireland are evident, reflecting the direct and indirect impact of socio-economic disadvantage, at family, school and community levels. Stronger linkages across the tertiary landscape and stronger HE transition supports, particularly for young adults with socio-emotional/psychological difficulties, are needed.

Second-level schools in Ireland faced different challenges when responding to the COVID-19 school closures depending on their locations and socioeconomic environments, according to new ESRI research in partnership with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment (DCCAE) and the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).

The Irish education system is undergoing significant change as it navigates the challenges of the 2020s. Schools are at the frontline of Ireland’s efforts to integrate migrant families, build an inclusive society and tackle generational socioeconomic inequality. They are also, increasingly, key sites of contestation over deep social questions like the place of faith and secularism in public institutions and the best path to ensuring young people thrive, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. While many of these challenges resonate across the second-level sector as all schools grapple with the difficulties and opportunities of educating young adults in today’s Ireland, the focus of this report is on the voluntary secondary school sector. The report presents rich evidence from a mixed-method research study across 21 voluntary secondary schools. The research was commissioned by the Joint Managerial Body for Voluntary Secondary Schools (JMB), with the research questions designed to examine the features and experiences of students, teachers and school leaders across the voluntary sector. However, the study allows for comparisons between experiences in voluntary secondary schools and other sectors. In particular, the survey of students undertaken in this study is compared to the nationally representative longitudinal study Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) and the International Student Assessment (PISA study) on 15 year olds in Ireland and across the European Union (EU). This approach allows for a deep exploration of the voluntary secondary sector, while also placing experiences in a national and international context.

Personal assistance (PA) has long been a key support for Irish people with physical and sensory disabilities, but evidence shows that Ireland lacks national standards for allocation, provision and data collection. Addressing a particular gap in understanding the experiences of disabled people, this paper draws on a large-scale mixed-method study with PA service users which was conducted in summer 2021. Overall, the evidence shows satisfaction among many service users, but suggests that systemic shortfalls have a clearly detrimental effect on the functionings and capabilities valued by the participants in relation to their ability to participate in social and economic activities that many people take for granted. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into what good personal assistance means for disabled people’s everyday lives and what Irish PA service users want to see change in the system. The findings are grounded in the Irish context, but they are useful to an international audience in clearly showing the value of PA and the importance of meaningfully including disabled people in its design and regulation.

Existing research on ableism has conceptualised it as a general attitude, rather than one that can manifest differently depending on the nature of the disability, the disabled person’s gender and the social context. Our aim was to investigate variation in attitudes to disability depending on these factors. A nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults read a series of vignettes about issues faced by disabled people, relating to education, employment, de-institutionalisation, relationships and welfare payments. Vignettes varied by presence and type of disability and the protagonist’s gender. Some vignettes asked participants whether it was acceptable to treat a disabled person in a specific way (e.g., not hire them for a job) and others asked whether it was acceptable for a disabled person to act in a certain way (e.g., to engage in a romantic relationship). The study was pre-registered and has open materials, data and analysis code. Judgements about how a disabled person was treated showed clear evidence of ableism towards some disabilities (e.g., autism, mental health issues) but not others (e.g., a spine disorder). Judgements about the actions of a disabled person were more nuanced. A disability-gender intersectionality effect was observed for judgements about romantic relationships, with physically disabled women penalised compared to men but no such difference observed for intellectual disability. No intersectionality or ableism was observed on a vignette about refusing poorly paid work. Having a close relationship with someone who has a disability predicted more positive attitudes across social contexts. We find clear evidence that ableism manifests differently depending on the nature of the individual’s disability, their gender and the social context, questioning the previous conceptualisation of ableism as a general attitude. There is considerable scope for further research investigating the forms ableism can take and the conditions that elicit it.