Son didn't go to school for three days.

[Spopssas]

School rang me on Monday, saying did I know that he hadn't attended that day, and was absent for three days last week.

No I didn't.

Jesus some of the responses in here!

Both my DC schools will text you by 10am if they have been marked absent and you need to reply to the text with the reason they are absent. We don’t call or email in, you just wait for the absent text.

They also use an app called Sentral where you can click on an attendance heatmap and it shows you any absences, down to individual periods.
For example the other day there was a notification that my daughter was absent 3rd period, I asked her if she missed her Law class, she said she was taking her exam in student services due to her anxiety, I rang the school and they were able to confirm that’s where she was and it just hadn’t been reflected in the system.

I’m sorry your DS is having a tough time OP and I hope you get everything sorted out. The school definitely should have notified you day 1.

I think saying he is 'upset' school didn't notice is ridiculous. You are upset. He has done rather well out of this. He had three days off. He gives you some crap about being worried about assessments which you lap up. He watches you complain about the school. You take him away for a treat! Brilliant.

Your son lied to you. You have sent him the message that it's OK because you don't want to discipline him. Your excuse? The school aren't punishing him so I'm not.

Speaking as a secondary school teacher, the school is seriously failing in its safeguarding responsibility.
All late students at our school get a late detention the same day. A notification is sent to parents.
If a child is absent, the school rings home. Every student, every day.
If a child is not marked present in a lesson, after being present earlier in the day, we get an email from the Attendance Officer, asking us if the student is there. If we do not see the email, they physically turn up at your door to check themselves.
People saying that you should have known, when the school did not inform you, are being ridiculous. Unless you take your child to school, how would you know?

Thank goodness your child was just safely hanging out at home, other kids might be skiving school but drawn into coercive relationships, county lines, crime. The schools safeguarding is totally lacking

Same, he's obviously struggling. If the school had picked up on this before like they should have then the op could have dealt with it the first time it happened and supported her ds and the school