Would you pay this school fine or risk it at court

I would pay the fine. Not because I agree with it but because the emotional and financial cost to you to fight it is not worth it (even if you won).

OP will be vent trained I imagine. It's usual for parents of children with complex needs to have training on various things - vents, various feeding tubes, nutrition feeds, central lines etc.

Unfortunately, you appear to have personal experience of somebody at the council telling you 'Not me, love' to get you off the phone.

LAs are not instructed to levy a fine - schools are compelled to submit a lengthy referral and then the LA decides whether or not to apply a Penalty Charge.

Pay the fine. You know the “rules” about term time holidays the school doesn’t have any choice about reporting it to the council who are issuing the fine.

What happens regarding his night time nursing when he is at home?

Pick him up at lunch time on the Monday and then go. 9 half days does not trigger a fine.

I think it's the local authority who run this system - the school has no say. So I might raise a formal complaint with the LA, about their failure to make any effort to make it possible for your DC to go on holiday with the school. Discrimination, disability whatever. But get a medical certificate that makes it clear there is a genuine problem and you are not an over-protective neurotic woman, which is always their first angle in my experience.

You really think that's comparable to a child being punished and missing out because they are disabled and then a fine for being disabled on top of that?

OP doesn't need a reminder that life isn't fair. She has a disabled child and experiences unfairness every single day.

The school should be making every effort to make this trip accessible to your child or there's an argument for disability discrimination. I also feel that making a child attend school for a week, alone, while their mates are on a holiday they were excluded from for no fault of their own isn't appropriate, to put it mildly.

Do not let this get to a disputed fine in court though. You need to nip it in the bud before it gets to that stage.

Taken at its very best, the school made "a mistake" and you are trying to mitigate their failure and the effect on your child by taking them on a trip at the same time to address the similar experiental and learning aspects. It's simple within this framing so I think there's scope for you and the school to come to an understanding here.

While I fully support attendance to avoid gaps in learning, this isn't about learning as his class are away: it's just attendance for attendance' sake and the imposition of a fine is hardly justifiable on this basis.

Take it back to the school asap and see if they can find a solution to help your child go on the trip or otherwise grant discretionary authorisation, which they do have, despite what they may claim to parents.

If they refuse, you can escalate this to governors, appropriate charities and media who absolutely won't be as generous with the framing.

Life isnt fair.

I was a boarder and on days the school was closed due to snow, they stuck us all in one big class and we still had lessons.

The vast majority of the school were day kids who could stay at home, sledge, have fun.

It's just one of those things.

Will his usual teachers be sitting in their classrooms twiddling their thumbs because all the kids are away? Or will they be going on the trip too? In which case there won't be anyone at school to supervise or teach your son anyway.

I'm assuming you have specifically talked to the school about taking dc out on a trip while rest of the class are away?

Having a good relationship with school helps, such as volunteering, being a parent governor etc for them understanding. However they can not rise above the law so unfortunately as parents we do face the same repercussions. I know, it does sound unfair, it is.

If he stayed in school, would the 1-2-1 still work with him?

Pay the fine and get it over and done. It will be more stressful than it's worth if you don't.

Ring your child in sick that week with anxiety as she feels different to everyone else and doesn’t want to be in school with no one in her year.

I would ask if they would waive the fine in these circumstances, it's not fair that your child cannot go on the activity residential so why shouldn't they do something else suitable instead? I'm assuming this is primary school? It's bringing home the fact your child has actually been discriminated against. I think they should be happy to quietly brush this one under the carpet. It's not as if the education they would receive in another year/class at that age will be of any huge benefit, for 5 days, and the rest of their class will not be doing the same education. I'd ask, you have nothing to lose as you would have to announce the absence anyway.

Just do a holiday form and if you get a fine just pay. Unless you have the energy to fight it. You might not have to go to court, you could speak to the head. I think you have reasonable grounds for this holiday but it's your call. My 2 girls are autistic and I've taken them out of school once every year so far (they're 8 and 10) for a butlins break. No fines so I guess we've been lucky. They don't always fine you when they understand a situation.

Yeah! Protest this. That will work.

I’d have a word with the head and explain that your child has been discriminated against because of their health/disabilry and no reasonable adjustments were made to allow them to attend… so your child was upset and rather than them being the only one in the class that week, you took them to do the activities the school made no attempt to allow them to attend. Tell them if you’re fined that you will be making an official complaint about the disability discrimination

Oh bless that you think this is enough.

Disabled kids frequently miss school trips because schools are not willing to do the work it takes for them to be able to go. Sure the law says they have to, but what do you think parents can do if they say no?

@Coastingtohell25I would take this one to court. I’d love to see a Local Authority be challenged on it.

Phone him in sick for the first day then the first day won’t be unauthorised. Then only the remaining 4 days will be unauthorised and you won’t meet the threshold for the fine.

If OP gets a fine, she should fight it.

I'm in a similar position with my disabled son and I'm telling the school that he'll be ill. If they make a fuss and try to fine me, I won't be sucking it up.

You're not being unreasonable in so much as it is infuriating that they can't cater for his needs and therefore he will be the only child staying behind, but by not paying the fine (if one comes) it could end up with court dates, prosecution, and a bigger fine. Is it worth dying on that hill to make a point? Have you spoken to the school about the possibility of getting a special exemption to have the leave authorised? They may or may not realise that it will be better for your child and themselves (saves them having to have teaching staff available for one child) & agree to authorise enough to avoid a fine.
Have a lovely holiday. If it comes down to it and you do get a fine, pay it but write a letter of complaint to the school, governors and local authority saying that they couldn't cater for his needs for him to join the trip & risked his mental health having him stay at school alone whilst all his peers went away.

Take him in for his morning mark on the Monday and then collect him at lunch time.

They can only fine if you have 10 units off, if you do it this way he'll only have 9 and they won't be able to fine you. (Unless you already have some unauthorised absence)

then you should be focussing your efforts at protesting this and making the school adhere to being inclusive.

You are in the wrong, pay the fine.