Parent and carer responsibilities
Your legal responsibility as a parent or carer is to ensure that your children of school age receive a suitable full-time education, by either enrolling your child at a school or by making other arrangements through home schooling / elective home education. If your child has problems attending school you should, first of all, contact your child’s school to ask for further support.
Children must start full-time education from the school term after their fifth birthday. They must stay in full-time education until the last Friday in June in the school year they turn 16.
Once enrolled at a school it remains the parent or carer’s legal responsibility to ensure that their child attends school regularly and arrives on time each day.
You could get a fine or be prosecuted if your child is missing school without authorisation.
Our top tips for maintaining good school attendance:
- Create good attendance habits from when your child first goes to nursery
- Talk to your child about the importance of school for their future
- Take a positive interest in your child's work, including helping them with homework
- Help your child to get into a good night-time, sleep time and morning routine
- Have a good relationship with school, talk to them about concerns you have and your child’s progress
- Contact school on the first day of absence if your child is not able to attend
- Be honest with school if your child is absent or not wanting to attend
- Book all holidays in the school holidays and not in term time
- Book medical appointments after school or during the school holidays. If you can’t, then make sure your child attends before and after their appointment
- Prioritise school attendance over other activities and ask for help if you need it
Please also consult our guidance documents for parents/carers which details expectations for parents, schools and the Local Authority:
School responsibilities
Schools’ responsibilities relating to attendance are detailed in the Education Regulations, they include:
- Taking a register twice each day (at the start of the morning session and once during the afternoon)
- Using the appropriate national attendance codes
- Complying with statutory registration and deletion procedures
Schools and Local Authorities also have a number of responsibilities outlined in the government guidance Working Together to Improve Attendance. This guidance also sets out the National Framework for the issuing of Penalty Notices.
Where there are concerns about pupil absence, schools should seek to intervene early, offering support, for a parent or carer to enable their child to attend school regularly.
Attendance guidance for schools and access to our online referral form is located on our Professional Resources website:
Attendance guidance for schools
Leave during term time
You must get permission from the headteacher if you want to take your child out of school during term-time. Schools will only agree to this in exceptional circumstances.
Where a family chooses to take a holiday or any leave during term time, the absences will be coded as unauthorised, and as such Headteachers may request that the Local Authority issues a Penalty Notice in accordance with the National Framework and Leicestershire County Council’s Code of Conduct.
You should contact your child's school for information about requesting term-time leave.
Fixed Penalty Notice for unauthorised absence
A fixed penalty notice is an alternative to prosecution in the magistrate's court. It gives you the opportunity to pay a fine for committing an offence, instead of being taken to court and prosecuted.
Leicestershire County Council issues fixed penalty notices for unauthorised absence from school on behalf of headteachers. If you have questions about a fixed penalty notice you have received, you should contact your child's school.
Leicestershire County Council issue fixed penalty notices following the Leicestershire County Council’s Code of Conduct.
If you have been issued with a Penalty Notice for an unauthorised absence of leave in Term-time you can pay the Penalty Notice here:
Pay a school Penalty Notice online
Late arrivals at school
Schools are legally required to take a register of pupils first thing in the morning and at some point, in the afternoon. The government advises that schools can keep the register open for up to 30 minutes although schools can set a shorter period.
If a pupil is late but the register is still open, they are marked as late. If the register has closed and there isn’t a satisfactory explanation, this may be classed as an unauthorised absence (U code). Repeated late attendance without authorisation (multiple U codes) can lead to a fine being imposed or prosecution.
Medical Appointments
Your child can miss school to get urgent medical or dental treatment.
You should avoid taking your child out of school for non-urgent medical or dental appointments as far as possible. Try to schedule doctor's and dentist's appointments after school or during the school holidays.
If a medical appointment during school hours is unavoidable, you should speak to your child's headteacher. You should also try to minimise disruption to your child's school day.
Authorised non-attendance at school
The High Court has confirmed that schools, not parents, authorise absence.
- Schools must use the National Attendance Codes to ensure consistency in the treatment and recording of attendance and absence.
- In most cases, illness will be the reason for absence (code I). However, schools can also authorise absence for other exceptional circumstances (code C). Such decisions will take place at the Headteacher’s discretion. An example would be bereavement, whereas unacceptable reasons might include a shopping trip or a birthday.
Absence from school
You must tell your school if your child is not able to attend. This might be because they are ill or have experienced a family emergency. If you don’t tell the school they may mark it as an unauthorised absence even if there is a good reason for your child missing school.
The school's headteacher is the only person who can authorise absence. When deciding whether to authorise your child's absence, they will consider the individual circumstances for the request.
If the headteacher does not agree they will record it on the register as an unauthorised absence. If this happens a lot, it may lead to school seeking medical evidence to support the absence.
If your child is ill, they should return to school as soon as they can. The NHS: Healthier Together guide provides you with advice on common childhood illnesses and when children can return to school.
Extra support is available if your child can't go to school for long periods because of a health issue. You should contact your child's school for further information and advice.
If your child does not attend school regularly
Parents and pupils should be supported at school and Local Authority level to overcome barriers to regular attendance, through a wide range of assessment and intervention strategies.
Your child might not want to go to school for several reasons. For example, it could be because they:
- Feel anxious
- Are falling behind in their schoolwork
- Have fallen out with a friend, or miss a friend who has moved away
- Don't feel motivated at school
- Are being bullied
If you're having trouble getting your child to go to school, tell the school as soon as possible so that they can work with you to help your child
Your school will try to help you get your child back into education.
They can arrange meetings with you to explore how they can support your child to re-engage in their learning and be able to attend. If they see no improvement, they will ask us for help can ask the Local Authority for support via the Inclusion Service or the Attendance Team at attendanceteam@leics.gov.uk.
You will be able to find out more about your school's attendance policy on their website.
Where parental co-operation is either absent or insufficient in this process, legal sanctions can be used as a means of enforcing attendance but only as a last resort.
Parents may be prosecuted if they fail to ensure their child receives an education. The following sections of the Education Act 1996 apply:
- Section 444(1): if “a child of compulsory school age who is a registered pupil fails to attend regularly” at the school. This leads to a fine of up to £1000 per parent.
- Section 444(1A): if “the parent knows that his child is failing to attend regularly at the school and fails to cause him to do so” without reasonable justification. This aggravated offence leads to a fine of up to £2500 per parent and/or up to 3 months imprisonment.
The only grounds for challenge in law to an offence under Section 444 are:
- The child was absent for medical reasons (parents/carers should obtain medical evidence to cover the periods of absence)
- The Local Authority failed to provide transport when required to do so
- The absences were due to religious observance
- Permission was granted by the school or there was unavoidable cause
If you are worried about your child’s attendance the first thing to do is contact the school to discuss your concerns. If you need more help, you can contact us on attendanceteam@leics.gov.uk.
Sources of Further Information
