With just a week to go before secondary schools reopen, a number of 12 year olds in the Co Wicklow town of Greystones remain with no school place and some have been told by education authorities to apply for home schooling.
The town has experienced huge demographic growth in recent years and despite the emergency creation of an additional 72 first year places in one school, for the second year running a small number of children have received no offer of a school place.
Some parents have enrolled their children in local private fee charging schools, because they feel they have been left with no other option.
They now face the prospect of fees of up to €8,000 a year.
RTÉ News has spoken to three parents whose 12 year olds remain without a place in Greystones, despite the fact that they have lived in the area for a number of years and applied to local schools last October as soon as enrolment opened.
A fourth parent has said that in June they felt obliged to enrol their child at St Gerard's private school, at a cost of €8,000 a year, because they had been turned away from all three local publicly funded schools.
"We're not rich but we had no choice," the mother, Emma, told RTÉ News.
Just yesterday Emma's child was offered a place at Greystones Community College, and the family has accepted the place.
However they have already paid a deposit of €1,500 to secure the place at St Gerard's, a payment which they say is non-refundable.
They have also bought school books and an iPad for St Gerard's, as well as the school uniform, and their child has visited the school for induction.
Emma says other parents have also reluctantly enrolled their child in a fee-charging school because they could not secure a place.
Three other mothers have told RTÉ News of the anxiety their children are feeling as they watch their 6th Class friends and classmates prepare for secondary school knowing that they have no place.
All of them said that their children have become withdrawn and anxious.
"He is so worried, you can't even imagine. It is overwhelming. He is trying to be positive but we understand his feelings," one mother said, adding that her child has been experiencing stomach pains as a result.
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Another spoke of how their child had stopped sleeping and eating over the summer months, and no longer wanted to participate in sports because they did not want to meet their friends who had a school place for September.
A third child, whose parent says they are extremely bright, worried that it was because their Drumcondra test scores might not have been high enough. "I try to reassure him but I can't quite reassure him any more," this parent said.
Cornelia told RTÉ News that they had applied to two out of the three second level schools in Greystones as soon as enrolment opened last October.
When they became aware of the huge pressure for places, they made a late application to the town's third and newest school, Greystones Community College.
Adriana tells a similar story. She said: "We applied in October and immediately we received an email from St David's [Holy Faith Secondary School] telling us our son was number 171 on the waiting list, and from Temple Carrig saying he was number 131."
Greystones Community College is the town's youngest school. Just five years old, it is in temporary accommodation on a temporary site.
Over the summer and for the second year running, it agreed to take in an additional three first year streams, to accommodate 72 more children. It had been hoped that this would be enough to meet the intense local pressure for places.
But there are still children in the locality who have no school place through no fault of their parents. It is simply because the town's schools all appear to be full.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that it has engaged intensively with schools and patrons in Greystones and continues to do so.
"All schools were offered support to increase their first year intake. On foot of this engagement,
Greystones Community College has made places available in three additional class groups, which was very much welcomed by the department," they said.
The Department of Education has said these additional places facilitated all local children who had applied to Greystones Community College.
In relation to Greystones' three second level schools the spokesperson said: "A project to refurbish and extend St David's Holy Faith Secondary School was completed in 2023 and construction has recently commenced on a new 1,000 student building for Greystones Community College.
"A project to extend Temple Carrig Secondary School to provide increased capacity was approved to progress to Stage 2a (Developed Sketch Scheme) earlier this summer."
They said progressing these two last projects was a priority for the department.
Meanwhile, parents do not know where to turn.
Mothers Adriana and Cornelia, who have both lived in the area with their families for more than 15 years, said they have written to the Minister for Education and all local TDs, including Taoiseach Simon Harris, whose constituency is Greystones.
They have emailed and phoned the Department of Education on numerous occasions.
Cornelia has begun travelling in person to the department's head office in Dublin city centre on an almost daily basis to try and see if that might help.
"This is child neglect by the State," Cornelia said. "I am going into the Department of Education and asking to talk to somebody because nobody is listening."
An Education Welfare Officer advised Cornelia to apply for home schooling for her child. She is incensed by this.
"My child needs to go to school with his friends. He does not need home schooling," Cornelia said.
Next Thursday, 168 students will begin their second level education at Greystones Community College. Around 300 others will begin at Greystones St David's and Temple Carrig schools.
The transition from primary to secondary school is a daunting one at the best of times, but for the small number of 12 year olds who have no place as yet, their anxiety is huge.
The fact that Emma's child was offered a school place yesterday means that there is still movement, that the challenge of fitting all children in is still continuing.
The families that have been left behind say they feel helpless, but there is still hope.
