There's been a 500% increase in the number of parents wanting to home school their children in August and September compared to the same time last year.
Much of the rise is due to families with a member who has an underlying condition, reluctant to send their kids back over Covid 19 concerns.
Jan Rynne is a mother from Dublin who has a form of blood cancer and is homeschooling her two children.
She's classed as very high risk when it comes to Covid 19 due to her underlying condition.
Official guidance says only children at "very high risk" are entitled to remote learning - with all other students expected to return to school.
Jan says she's been trying to take precautions for the sake of her family's health.
"I'm trying to protect my own life and I'm children's life."
"I'm not being supported and it's my kids, and other kids like them that are slipping through the cracks now."
She's not the only one with concerns.
This is my sister and her family, it’s appalling that DES aren’t providing the option to choose blended learning, other countries are doing it to great success. @NormaFoleyTD1 please pull your head out of the sand and help #forgottenfamilies with extremely high risk members. https://t.co/XiFL8BvJGb
— 👻 Scare2Much18 👻 (@BeccaFlynnDub) October 27, 2020
Tusla Receive 1000 New Home School Applications
New figures from child and family agency Tusla show over a thousand families have made applications to be placed on the official home schooling register between August and September.
That's an increase of nearly 500% compared to the same time last year.
Tusla says the increase may be due to a number of factors.
One of them is families with a medical or health concern who are hesitant to let their children go back to class while Covid is still around.
