To have refused to sign this parenting contract about attendance

@LittleHangleton I hope that as you develop in your role, you will develop a much better understanding of the effect medical issues can have on attendance. Your approach would not help my DD at all and would only cause conflict. If the attendance officer at my school approached her role in that way, the relationship with parents that is essential to children with disabilities would break down completely.

The DfE have a long way to go to understand the damage they are doing by pushing schools to think 100% attendance is achievable for all students no matter what. And some schools also need to consider the damage they do to already struggling families with this approach.

I am saddened that people think this way and am so glad my DDs school are more understanding. Her paediatrician commented that her attendance was much higher than she would have anticipated given all her medical issues, but technically she is classed as persistently absent by the DfE.

As a teacher I’m confused why the school would be having this conversation with you if your child has known and evidence medical conditions? What I’m getting at is, do you think the school believes you as they are coming across as if they don’t?

I was about to type out a response to that poster but you’ve said what I’d have said much more succinctly.

OP, I’m so sorry people like @LittleHangleton are what you’re up against. It’s absolutely appalling.

Was thinking the same thing 😜
perfect match.

Don't they! My word.

You sound perfectly suited to your new job.

I'm an Attendance Lead (newly appointed) at a school with historically low attendance. I'm challenging this can't do culture. As a result, we've sent out over 100 attendance contracts since half term.

In terms of signing it, doesn't matter to me if you don't. I just write "parent refused to sign" on the document and carry on with it anyway. When it gets yo the penalty notice fine, not signing it just makes the parent look worse.

Moving on to illness, fo you have a medical professional willing to put in writing that this child cannot reasonably attend school more than 80%? If so, school have lots of options to support you.

However, GPs will on the whole want to promote good attendance at school. If the GP doesn't think your child's health needs warrants 1-2 school days off a week, you need to accept your child needs to attend more and figure out what the actual barrier to attending is. It takes some deep reflection on why the child isnt getting their education. Is it to do with sleep habits, rules and boundaries, behaviour issues, lack of resilience, permissive parenting, lack of assertive adults, taking the path of least resistance?

I’m sorry to hear your story. I used to be quite upset seeing kids going into school happy & laughing knowing my DD was at home poorly.

My experience is that as much as the schools talk about importance of attendance, kids have amazing resilience. My DD is now through uni and in a professional job, but had similar attendance for a chronic lifelong medical condition. The lowest was when they were aged about 11 it was 30% for the year.

Overall the school were understanding and I gave all the consultant letters. Had a few tiger mum moments! A few rude teacher comments. But I never stopped fighting for her. In secondary, they didn’t like DD would text me when she needed to leave and I would turn up at reception desk to collect but it meant she could go in knowing I would always come and get her if needed.

When DD was 15 they worried she would miss course work for exams. Local council offered online schooling ( see Academy 21) For us it was perfect. 4 day week & study from home (almost 100% attendance as it was easier with pain to not have to travel to school & walk around in the day). She still went to prom & saw friends. She got good results, went to college (2 A levels over 3 years) and then uni ( with a foundation year)

i wouldn’t have signed an attendance contract. It’s stressful enough having a child not in school due to a medical issue.

It is very hard to say. It sounds like the school are bonkers. However I have never seen this approach from a school unless they actually think something else is going on ie they think the child could be in school more and that the parent is hiding poor attendance with diagnosed and undiagnosed medical conditions. The OP may be completely genuine and their child may be one who attends a school that fines or harasses genuinely sick children. However my experience is that most schools are understanding and helpful when children are so ill that they cannot attend.

Can i ask OP. Are her medical issues mental health related? Eg Anxiety.
Unfortunately these just don't seem to be viewed in the same light as physical health issues

Its because they aren't the same.

There's a big difference between:

• child A with cystic fibrosis who's on the lung transplant waiting list and is medicalised to receive medical treatment that is keeping them alive. This child cannot attend school. They would die, they may simply be too unwell to be educated.
• child B with anxiety or issuss relating to ND for example, for whom attending school would be very difficult and damaging to their wellbeing/mental health. This is very different. This child could & should be supported by school, parents & medical team to receive education in some form. If mainstream provision is not feasible with support, alternatives should be being assessed rg EOTAS, special schools, ARPs.

Are the school providing work? They should be.

The ultimate duty to provide education for CSA pupils unable to attend school full time lies with the LA. Even if the school sends work help, this doesn’t relieve the LA’s duty to provide a suitable, full-time education.

Can i ask OP. Are her medical issues mental health related? Eg Anxiety.
Unfortunately these just don't seem to be viewed in the same light as physical health issues. Eg a friends child has cystic fibrosis and is hospitalised at times and the school accept his absences without question.
Its very difficult because im not sure there's much evidence when it comes to EBSA that staying off school actually helps long term

Yep I second emailing the LA inclusion team (and OFSTED) because your child has legitimate reasons to be off school yet you are faced with endless demands and letters. Because the school won’t work with you in an appropriate way, you’re feeling pressurised to home school. Not that you want to home school, you just feel cornered and there is no choice. Off-rolling is something many schools secretly chance but they are not allowed to off-roll in any shape or form. Local Authorities firmly disapprove of off-rolling and make attempts to stamp it out. While OFSTED inspectors will mark school leadership lower if off-rolling is identified, it basically highlights shoddy non inclusive leadership.

Write your own contract and send that in instead. Then you can keep your undertaking to making sure she attends school when well enough, and bringing her straight back to school after appointments. You could try adding in some clauses for them to agree to!

Can you amend the contract to something you can comply with?

So if it says “We will improve her attendance” add in the words “insofar as her health allows” or similar.

That way the school can tick the box that says has signed a contract

Agree however with the broader points above that this doesn’t sound like a helpful or compassionate approach from the school and you may want to start using the words discrimination/Equalities act (and perhaps looking at other options if there are any that might work)

Let them make referrals.

However preemptively send a confirmation email of todays events.

Dear X,

Thank you for showing for concern with regards DDs attendance which I'm sure you must know I share.

However, as has been evidenced previously on numerous occasions DD has various medical diagnosis's as listed below.

List....

As a result of these conditions DD suffers xxx <write the effects as they would affect attendance>.

As this is a LT health condition we, as you are, are aware she is covered by the equality act and has a legal right for reasonable adjustments.

I refused to sign to agree I'd increase Dds attendance because as you are aware neither DD or I have control over her illnesses.

However having considered reasonable adjustments you can make I suggest ..... <give them things they can do such as live streaming lessons or recording inputs and sending her a voice copy, providing the work for her to complete online if well enough etc>.

I appreciate you have said you will make referrals as we cannot increase her attendance beyond what her disability allows and we look forward to working with these agencies to support DDs education in a way she can access it.

Yours xxxxx

Nothings focusses someone's mind more than you looking forward to them playing their pet in the game as the law states rather than just producing a meaningless contract!

If she's ill enough to have missed forty percent of the academic year presumably her doctors/medical team are aware.

What's their view? Presumably if a child is that ill for such a long period there have been hospital stays involved, your council might have info about the hospital education service or home tuition services that they should be supporting you with.

Not finishing secondary school doesn’t automatically mean someone is destined to be unemployed.

my sisters both struggled with school. They didn’t sit GCSEs one now has her own business and the other works in a school ironically.

We need to be writing to our MPs. Many of the newer Labour MPs have no clue about what the current education system is like. Many are even new to politics. But the more noise parents make about the ridiculous nonsense regarding attendance the better.

@NoContract don't sign anything. Ignore it and let the school worry about their Ofsted figures. Not your problem. You have enough on your plate with your DD’s condition.

My attendance was probably about that, maybe slightly higher. I cope with employment by working compressed hours, and working from home. Many disabled people don't cope with employment. What is your point?

If sixth forms/colleges will not enrol a disabled child with 60% attendance due to their disability then I would suggest they are breaking the law tbh.

As a pp has mentioned, there are two key documents relating to school absence and children with long term medical issues:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ce6a72e40f0b620a103bd53/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf

The key points are section 365 in the first document - "Schools are not expected to routinely request that parents provide medical evidence to support illness absences. Schools should only request reasonable medical evidence in cases where they need clarification to accurately record absence in the attendance register – i.e. making a decision that code I is the absence code that accurately describes the reason the pupil is not in school for the session in question. In the
majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school will be that evidence and can be accepted without question or concern. Only where the school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical evidence be requested to support the absence."

section 25 in the second document lists practices that are not acceptable - including "penalise children for their attendance record if their absences are related to their medical condition, e.g. hospital appointments"

I recommend sending an email to head of year or whoever is instigating these meetings, highlighting the above documents and asking directly if they have reason to believe the authenticity of illness? and tell them that unless they do you expect all absences to be authorised in line with government policy. Then ask for a full copy of her attendance record so you can see how they have coded absences. Illness should be I and medical appointments should be M.

Do they have an anti-bullying policy? Because they really ought to read it themselves.
They are failing your DD and discriminating against her.

What is your daughter planning to do once she leaves school? Very few colleges/sixth forms will enrol with such low attendance. If she genuinely can't get to school more than approximately 60% of the time, how will she cope with employment? I agree that if she is this poorly it is now a disability and you will need to seek appropriate support for now and the future