Funding for Traveller Education

Common Funding Formula

The Department provides additional funding directly to schools with Traveller children. Schools budgets are determined by the Common Funding Scheme, within which Traveller children constitute a ‘factor’. This funding is calculated on a per capita basis.

Education and Library Board Funding

The Department also allocates additional funding each year to the Education and Library Boards to provide educational services to Traveller children, their parents and their schools. This funding is a fixed amount, adjusted for inflation, and is distributed to the Boards in April each year on a per capita basis. This is distributed on the basis of the number of Traveller children enrolled in schools in each Board area in the October school census. Therefore the amount available per capita will fluctuate each year according to the total number of Traveller children recorded in the census.