Daughter got out of school

Is she in mainstream school? If she is, it is very easy for a student to sneak out without being noticed.

Secondary schools should not be like prisons.

What time you ring them?

I would be annoyed if I rang them in the morning and they hadn’t gotten back to me all day but chances are they were just waiting for school to finish to talk to you properly.

Your DD walking out is not their problem though (unless she had been missing for hours).
She is old enough to know better and she is the one in the wrong here.
Her autism is irrelevant unless she needs a 1:1 or is a runner, in which case a mainstream secondary school probably isn’t the right setting for her.

@Spirallingdownwards I'm not entirely sure what your point is.

The model of modern secondary schools is an authoritarian, restricted environment. It's not a good thing.

"I think a lot of people here are assuming that if OP’s daughter is in mainstream then she can’t be vulnerable and she should be treated like every other child without particular needs.
Anyone who knows how badly SEN is resourced in schools will understand that a lot of our kids who need extra support are just not getting it."

Absolutely @SuperSue77

SN schools in my area have a 2 year wait for a primary places.
The wait for secondary is much longer.
It means vulnerable pupils are placed in m/s secondaries who often struggle to meet need.

It’s also the terminology ‘got out’ it’s not prison, and your daughter will not be the only person not registered in, all have to be looked into and it takes ages.

Not all schools mistrust their pupils enough to operate a hall pass system.

I used todo this alot go in get morning mark walk out instead off going to first lesson go hang out in park then go bk at dinner get afternoon mark and back out again secondary school is nothing like primary children are trusted to go to where they should go getting them ready for adulthood.

I think a lot of people here are assuming that if OP’s daughter is in mainstream then she can’t be vulnerable and she should be treated like every other child without particular needs.
Anyone who knows how badly SEN is resourced in schools will understand that a lot of our kids who need extra support are just not getting it.
My 11 yr old AuDHD son is more aligned in maturity with a year 5, yet the LA refused to assess him for an EHCP because academically he is well above age expectations. They refuse to accept the daily struggles he has or his increased vulnerability. If my son left his mainstream secondary I’d be furious and I’d be contacting the LA team and would expect a meeting with the school.
I would not accept “he’s in a mainstream secondary, get over it”. At another time, my son would have an EHCP and be in a more appropriate setting, but we’re in 2023 with a Tory govt so my son is shoved into a massive secondary and left to fail before his needs get any recognition. Luckily, his school is very in tune with kids with extra needs and has been really supportive and communicative with me. But not may secondaries are like this unfortunately.

DC1 secondary doesn’t have gates. Kids can just leave when they want. It’s a secondary not primary. Kids travel to and from school themselves.

Yeah depends on the time of day really, if she went to morning registration and then left I’m not completely surprised. They might not have realised until lunch registration. How did she get out? My child’s school you can only leave via reception so they catch the ones bunking off but I know other schools have some open exits.

Agree with the others tbh you need to address why she’s bunking off rather then blame the school.

Depends when it was, my DD's school (and she has autism too) was open so they could go out at lunch for instance, they would only know she was missing at registration, and yes she went home many times and I got a call to say she had registered in the afternoon (some days she didn't make it until morning break before I was called because she wanted to go home!)

Specialist provision is obviously different, all depends on whether your dd had this

Secondary schools are often open sites so students can just leave. And staff won’t restrain them to stop them leaving even if they did see them go. They would usually follow them though to make sure they were safe.

If it’s mainstream then YABU

We would spend a good 15+ minutes looking around the site for a missing student before we phoned home and made parents panic... pretty embarrassing to call home and then discover they were hiding in the toilets the whole time! However, we do have a list of 'flight risk' students who have a tendency to run off... we wouldn't waste any time on those ones.

If it’s a special school then that’s awful. If it’s mainstream then I wouldn’t expect them to notice immediately

I have had this in junior school where my DC got left outside the locked building for 20 mins before they were found. I was disappointed and angry with the school to a degree but they are being assessed for autism and sometimes bolted to the calm room, so I can also see how assumptions were made that they had gone there.

So we approached it as a conversation as to how everyone could be sure they had gone for time out and not make assumptions where they were, which felt a lot more productive than simply being angry, and helped put some more procedures in place that could assist both the teachers and the pupils.

You need to repost this in the SN section.

You wanted to school to notice she was missing and call you in 15 mins? When did she walk out? If it was at the start of break for example that’s 20 mins before the next register right there. At lunch it’s an hour.

what year is she in?

And this.

Secondary schools typically have an open gate OP. The DC at the school are at least 11 years old and are expected to sign in/out if they are leaving the school premises. The gate isn't manned all day long (only at beginning/end of day in many cases - sometimes at lunchtime). IMO a 'massive complaint' would be out of proportion. If your DC is just walking out of school that's not the school's fault.

Same here, and there is NO way to get out of school grounds without it being noticed.

Yet more people who don't understand autism and that an autistic child walking out of school isn't necessarily "bunking off".
Sigh.

Ironic that everyone is saying you're being unreasonable for them to have noticed yet the school here won't let anyone leave a classroom without a pass and everyone outside of a classroom is questioned.

Unless she timed it right at the beginning of her lunch break, our school would've noticed and I'd have had an email about a looming detention for ditching a class quicker than you can say "HMP Pentonville".

The problem here is your daughter left school without permission.

15min is not long when you are teaching a class to find someone isn't where they are supposed to be, to check if anyone else has kept her behind to talk about something or that she hasn't gone to the toilet. To then send out search parties to said toilets to try to find her all while doing the actual job of teaching the students in front of you.

Perhaps less of a "massive complaint " and more of a "massive telling off" for your dd.