School won’t authorise absence for illness

[G172125]

Looking for some advice. My Daughter is off school with chicken pox and will probably be off for most of the week. The school are requesting medical evidence before they will authorise the absence. I have sent a photo of my child showing her spots but they said I needed to go to a chemist and get them to give me some calamine lotion with her name and a date on it. I’ve been to three chemists and they have all said they don’t provide proof and are fed up of schools sending parents to them. They said it would be going against nhs advice to put calamine lotion on chicken pox and they won’t print a label for me to stick on the bottle if I buy some. Her Gp won’t provide a sick note or appointment. Her attendance is at 97%. She was sent home in September and also just before half term with a sickness bug both were marked as unauthorised even though she was sent home from school vomiting. Who can I complain to about this? She is only on day two of chicken pox so will definitely be off most of the week and I want to avoid getting a fine that I can’t afford at the minute.

Yes it is and she definitely won't be fined for it. You only get fined for holidays or persistent absence which has to be below 80%

Wake up.

How will someone know that this isn't a holiday when it hasn't been recorded on the register correctly?
They only have the register code to go by which says unauthorised - meaning not authorised for any reason (such as medical / unwell)

@RP2211
Additionally,

If you truly believe that schools don't fine or forge registers by refusing to correctly mark as medical absences
Why would schools be threatening the parents on unwell children with fines?

If the school is making this up then why? So the ill child can magically stop being unwell?
Do you have any concept of how stressful it is managing an unwell child and having to deal with this bullshit from schools?

I don't need to wake up. I work in a school I know how the system works.

No, it isn't. Unauthorised absence penalty charges can be for single or multiple absences totalling ten sessions within a ten week period.

The definition in Working Together to Improve School Attendance is

'The threshold is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session. This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks). These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks). The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term).'

Local Authorities may have their own specific thresholds for bothering (and it isn't exactly a well funded department, usually), but the legal threshold for submission is the legal threshold.

Then you know that schools should be marking illness as medical or illness not unauthorised

It's not appropriate to incorrectly mark the register

It is highly concerning that someone working in schools doesn't understand the 10 unauthorised absences over 10 weeks can trigger a fine

This is appalling.
She is the head teacher, you are a parent requesting to speak to her concerning your child. She calls you, she makes a face to face meeting with you, whichever you prefer all in a reasonable time scale. This is literally part of her job.
If she doesn't like dealing with something as trivial as authorising absences for illness she should be having a word with the member of staff responsible as to why this has landed on her desk, not refusing to speak to you.
You are a parent at the school, you deserve the minimum respect of a phone call when you wish to speak to the head.
Personally I'd be making a complaint to the chair of governors about this as well as the utterly ridiculous policy regarding medical absences.

Fairly standard now, but it is the county making the schools do it

Write to your MP. This is disgraceful behaviour from the school and needs to be called out at the highest level.

Schools in England are insane. We don’t have any of this nonsense in Scotland.

just ignore them

I’d call school, tell them she’s actually feeling fine in herself, and that if they don’t want to authorise the absence from the photo that’s absolutely not a problem and you’ll bring her in tomorrow. Please could they warn all other parents that she is still infectious.

They’ll probably back down….

I agree. In Ireland and we don’t need to be authorised to have chicken pox.

what’s it all about?

I've had this, school can go a bit OTT. I stayed with DS once going into school as he wasn't sure if he was feeling well enough, eventually they said "It's up to you if you take him home, but please take him to the GP."
I signed him out, though they refused to authorise it as it was my choice? (Very confusing as they asked me what I wanted to do - picked the wrong answer I guess). I rang the GP from the school car park, got an immediate appointment and headed there. Diagnosed with gastroenteritis and told to take two days off.
School wanted proof. Not on the NHS app for him as he's a child, no appointment text as it was immediate, and the surgery had already got annoyed the last time school asked for proof so I didn't want to ask again.
I pointed them to the CCTV in their car park, showing me on my phone, and said I could send a screenshot if they needed to see I made a call.
I still don't understand why it was unauthorised, and why I got the third degree after. I guess if they ask me to take one of the kids home again I'm supposed to refuse or it's unauthorised? I'm autistic and their rules don't make sense to me.

If they attempt to fine it will be easy to provide proof in the way of time stamped pictures that dc had chicken pox. I’m so glad my dc are at school in Scotland and can be ill without going through all this - or can indeed go on holiday with a ‘sorry u can’t authorise this but have a lovely time’ from the head but in the long term authorised or not means nothing except a number on a piece of paper never to be looked at again when they move to the next year. It’s crazy to control people’s dc so much they are afraid for them to be unwell in case of fines