What does your school do about persistent absences?

[Pampampam]

Curious to know what other schools, both state and private, do about children who are regularly off sick one or two days every single week with vague symptoms (bad cold, tummy ache etc.)? As in the child will be in school on the Monday, then off sick on Tuesday, back on Wednesday looking absolutely fine, off again on Thursday etc. Is any action taken e.g. fining the parents or raising a safeguarding concern? Would the parents be called in for a meeting to discuss/come up with a plan for improving attendance? Said child currently has attendance of under 60% with no obvious reason.

Should have added, child had no known health conditions and is not neurodivergent.

No idea but watching with interest as this is my DD!

School website usually has this info. My kids school has particular things that kick in at 90, 80 percent etc.

@Momstermunch No info on school website unfortunately.

Our school tried to get us to sign a ridiculous contract to improve it and I refused. How am I meant to influence bacteria and viruses 🤦‍♀️

@Teeheehee1579 I hope you don’t mind me asking but what’s the reason your DD is absent so often? Are they regularly too unwell to attend school (e.g. really susceptible to tummy bugs or whatever) or is there something more (school refusal etc.)? Please ignore if you’d prefer not to go into detail.

That will very depend on the child and the family.

One of mine had appalling attendance for about 18 months-2 years after a serious illness as she picked up every bug going. The school knew us well enough to know that if she was well enough to be at school she’d be there so they just supported her in what she’d missed.

An old friend was pulled up into a meeting with school welfare officers and social services and offered parenting classes and threatened with a fine for repeated absences on Fridays and Mondays as it was parental laziness.

A lot also depends on the school. Both their attitude and the resources they have. I’ve worked in schools where SMT have worked hard with children and families to increase attendance, but I’ve also worked in two schools where the HT basically wrote of some children and their families very quickly.

@ARichtGoodDram Thank you, that’s helpful. This particular child is definitely more likely to be absent on Mondays and any day where there’s any sort of test/assessment.

I have a child in my class who has below 70% attendance and a habit of not being in Mondays and Fridays. She is quite a poorly child but it is extreme. Schools have to buy into the EWO service and many can't afford to do it.
This child has missed so much so is behind purely because of that. She missed the introduction to decimals so couldn't cope when she came back even though I tried to fill the gap whilst teaching the rest. She will never be able to make up for all the work she has missed.

Children 80-90% we will liaise with the families, check all is ok and offer any support if needed

For persistent absentees (>80%) we invite parents in for a meeting to discuss how to improve attendance (ie referral to school health, offer support internally or externally) if there are no real reasons and it is vague tummy aches, colds we will try and get the child on board - perhaps with reassurance that if they come in and feel unwell we will phone home.

If we still don't see any improvement then we will - as a last resort - code absence as 'unauthorised' unless we have evidence of illness (examples could be a receipt for dioralyte, the child is noticeably ill the day before or under the weather on return , GP appointment)

After 5 full days absence over two half terms we will refer to the LA who will fine or prosecute.

I stress the above is REALLY rare and the previous strategies usually get people on track and help us identify, and help with, barriers to a child attending properly.

'Genuine absence' we deal with sensitively, with compassion and leniency (ie ND children, children with genuine physical or MH illness) some children have periods of ill health and we absolutely get that - unfortunately though there are some shit parents that CBA to get their child into school every day!

@AubreysMonkey Thank you, that’s really helpful.

My DD is at private school. She has had three sick days this academic year due to her chronic illness. This is actually amazing as most with her disease only manage 80% attendance and some only 50%.

Because of her regular hospital appointments including a day admission every 8 weeks for infusions ,her registered attendance went to below 95% and I received the most awful letter threatening to report us to the local authority if the percentage went below 90.

I wrote a very strong email to the attendance officer and told them that they were lucky DD is leaving the school after GCSEs as I would have reported them for failing to make allowances under the disability act.

The attendance officer phoned me and couldn't apologise enough and promised no further letters would be sent.

@AngelsWithSilverWings Thank you, particularly as this is a private school I’m referring to. I wish your daughter well.