Priests, psychologists and counsellors assisted the families of the victims of the crash at St Columcille's Hospital in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, where all of the casualties were originally taken.
Father Alex Conlan, from Arklow, was there to console the parents of Kevin O'Leary, who only enrolled with St Catherine's school two weeks ago.
"It's every parent's nightmare. You kiss them off to school in the morning and then you hear something like this has happened. Nothing can prepare you for it."
Father Conlan said he last saw Kevin on Sunday night. "He was as happy as ever. That was him, always smiling. He was happy and excited about going to a new school."
Kevin was one of 40 pupils at St Catherine's, the majority of whom were collected each morning by mini-buses, with some occupying residential places.
Based in Newcastle Hospital near Newtownmountkennedy, the school is run by the Co Wicklow Association of Mental Handicap, which is funded by the Eastern Health Board.
Classes were cancelled and pupils were sent home yesterday when news of the crash came through.
Mr Harry Cullen, chairman of the school board, said staff were distraught. "Everybody works very closely at the school and have never had to deal with anything like this in some 27 years. But, while our staff are dreadfully upset, they are dealing with the situation in a highly-professional manner."
He said the first thing the school did was to contact and begin counselling the families of the victims.
Further counselling services were made available by the Eastern Health Board at St Columcille's Hospital, which implemented an emergency plan to deal with the accident. Over 100 medical and nursing staff were called to the hospital, with others put on stand-by. All the surgeons and doctors were in the accident and emergency department by the time the first casualties arrived, having been brought by ambulances from Wicklow, Arklow and Loughlinstown.
A short-term emergency helpline was also set up to provide information to concerned parents.
A health board spokeswoman said: "A lot of effort has been put into ensuring all the necessary counselling and psychological services are provided to both families and staff. We would be anxious to express our deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and gratitude to the staff who did such good work under such difficult circumstances."
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, expressed her sympathy to the families of the victims on behalf of the Government.
Also offering his condolences, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, said he was awaiting the outcome of a report on the incident from Bus Eireann, which operates the school transport service on behalf of the Department.
Leinster MEP Mr Alan Gillis said "road accidents and their causes must now be given top priority by the Government". He said that while the cause of the accident was not yet clear, there was a need for "a dual-lane strategy" on the State's roads where width permitted.