A seven-year-old boy from Donabate in north Co Dublin has not attended school since the start of the term because the two local primary schools are full.
Andrew Lohmann is spending his days at home with his mother, who does not have a car. She says he is too young to travel 10 or 15 miles on his own to a school outside the community.
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said last night that Andrew's plight is being repeated regularly in rapidly-growing areas. This is because the Department of Education's planning process is "well behind demographic trends".
The problem is especially acute in Co Meath, west Dublin and north Kildare, according to the INTO.
Neither St Patrick's Boys' School or the Educate Together Donabate have room for Andrew. Andrew is on the waiting list for the Educate Together school, which has 64 pupils and 150 more signed up for entry in 2004 and beyond.
The school is being held in a golf club ballroom at a cost of €3,500 per month in rent until Christmas.
The school had been approved by the Department of Education in June for a site offered by Fingal County Council, but on Thursday this site was suddenly withdrawn even as builders were preparing prefabs.
The plan to site the school on the grounds of a community centre fell apart when the community centre fell into financial difficulties, forcing Fingal County Council to now consider selling the 24 acres of land to a developer.
"I feel strongly that children have a right to be educated in their local area," said Andrew's mother, Ms Sarah Lohmann, who is a teacher.
She explained that Andrew was offered a place at a school in Swords, but to get there he would have to take public transport. The logistics of getting three children to three schools, would mean that either Andrew or his sister, Miriam (9), would be unaccompanied. Miriam would be in the school yard alone before the school opened.
Andrew's older brother, who is 13, could not bring Andrew to school in Swords because this would make him late for his classes in secondary school.
The Lohmann family is one of several in Donabate with educational difficulties.
Ms Jane Garcia, who is 8½ months pregnant, wants her son to attend Educate Together but because there is no place, she must drive her son, James (8), 40 minutes each way to Sutton every day for national school.
Mr Eamon Willett and Ms Maria Willett have two children aged four and six who should be in school in Donabate this autumn. The Willetts were offered affordable housing in Donabate by the council, yet there is no place in the local schools for their children.
The Willetts have been told to take their children back to their former area of Balbriggan to school every day, but the Willetts have no car.
The Department of Education said last night it was Educate Together's responsibility to find a site. Fingal County Council said it had been trying to help, but providing a site was not its responsibility.