Unauthorised absences wtf are we supposed to do!

[dreamingbohemian]

Surely everyone knows that it's nearly impossible to get GP appointments these days. And surely everyone understands that sometimes your DC are too unwell to go to school but not unwell enough to get an emergency appointment.

But my DC's school are now saying any absence that doesn't have medical evidence will be unauthorised. They will only accept things you can get from a GP, like an appointment card or prescription.

So what are we meant to do??? We are finishing the year being this close to persistent absence, which doesn't seem fair. We can't help it if DC was ill a lot this year, but with routine bugs that a GP would never see him for or prescribe anything (including norovirus -- are we meant to send him in and spread it then?)

AIBU to think this makes no sense?

(not school bashing here, they say they are just following policy)

My son is not a persistent absentee. He's at 92%.

And I could give a fuck if you believe me. Not sure why you're being so difficult though. Accusing a whole thread of posters of lying is some weird shit.

You absolutely could have a genuine reason. Which would be consistent with a diagnosed condition.

Or equally you could not and the volume of sickness is what’s caused the doubt of authenticity. There is nothing in the guidance that says frequent absences is an unreasonable reason to doubt the authenticity. That’s what you are missing.

Or perhaps there’s so many of you piling on I cannot keep up with them? I’ve definitely not been defensive.

Okay, well that’s your choice not to believe what people are saying is happening to them.

Doesn’t make for a strong argument, though and I’m not sure why you are so invested in this thread when you aren’t listening to any other viewpoints.

I’ve found this thread really useful @dreamingbohemian Gives solidarity for when some of us will need to push back on nonsensical school policies.

The derailing and ableism from some posters - shows there are people out there who simply can’t have empathy or understand for something they haven’t experienced.

I hope you get situation sorted and he has a better year next year.

You keep defending your position despite being continually told you’re wrong, with examples. That is very much being defensive.

Sigh. Again. There aren’t actual exams. Just vague generalisations with no actual substance.

Sadly, this kind of utter bullheadedness is really common in policy makers. They’ve grabbed on to something they can measure easily and decided that’s the be all and end all. Then they make policy and refuse to listen when people point out that they’ve missed the point entirely and are causing more problems than they’re solving.

I have good reason to suspect that the DfE delivery team charged with improving attendance do exactly this.

Ok 👍

@JenWillsiam would irritability and anger count as chronic conditions/symptoms?

NICE guidelines refer to autism as a life long (I.e. chronic) condition btw.

Definitely. Let’s just stop sending teenagers to school. Irritable kids are a real bother in the classroom.

How old is he? You are talking about sixth form so he must be late secondary age?

Is he REALLY ill when he's off? I often used to pull a sicky when I was at high school as my mam would be out to work so I could just laze on the sofa watching daytime tv!

However as an adult with a manic full time job unless I'm REALLY poorly it is so much easier for me to just suck it up and go into work then the faff of sorting cover etc! And that's the case for lots of jobs!

The attendance thing is all from the DfE and schools just have to implement it. So be pissed off at the tories not individual schools!

Totally agree. I think this is exactly what’s happening.

And I think schools/LEA/ DfES know it is contradictory too, as they send out a letter to a family that they know full well has followed all the absence reporting procedures and is unlikely to be truanting.

But they still do it because of the extreme pressure on attendance figures and it might just gain them a day of attendance here and there across the multiple letters they send out.

Thanks @SquitMcJit 🙂I've found this thread super useful and I'm glad you have too.

I feel like so many policies these days don't see us as people, just numbers. There's so much presentism everywhere. My DH sees people at work who are so ill and contagious, they work with the public all day and spread god knows what, all because they will lose their job otherwise. It is really not like this in other countries (including countries with higher productivity rates) and it doesn't have to be like this here.

I don’t know if this has been mentioned already but the biggest issue in schools at the moment is attendance. The DfE have noticed this and decided the answer is to put more pressure on schools to get kids in. The Ed Sec actually said this week that head teachers should be going to pick up kids who aren’t attending and force them to go to school.

If you are annoyed with the attendance policy then write to your MP, the government, the Ed Sec. They are the ones that dictate policy and then use Ofsted as a means to enforce it- while school attendance must be above a certain percentage (no excuses) or you go into RI.

They offer no money or practical solutions as to how this should be achieved and have cut all the outside agencies that support kids with attendance.

So most schools end up coping the blame for desperately trying to get kids in every day.

I mean what if they physically attack other kids/teachers but send them in anyway I guess! You don’t mind your kid comes home with a few bite marks on them, do you? As long as everyone has a tick on the register then let the ASD kids have their angry moments without bringing those darn numbers down.

Yes I know a lot autism. 😂

As for X. I would explain to my child that X was clearly having a bad day and the school need to be supporting him and explain why he might have got to that point.

Telling you to keep him home was an illegal exclusion. It’s disability discrimination. But that’s a whole other thread re what they should be doing. And what you should be doing.

Oh I'm definitely pissed off at the Tories!

He is genuinely unwell, as in coughing nonstop and fever, or D&V. He had a really bad chest infection once and antibiotics for it. He goes in when it's just a little cold. He actually doesn't like missing school.

are you suggesting that the solution to a dysregulated autistic child is an illegal exclusion?

@JenWillsiam ok. How about oppositional defiance disorder?

You know a lot of autism? Not exactly sure what that means but ok…

Ah yes, the magic support system. Sure thing. Do you have ways of magicking up the funding for that? Or getting EHCPs put through to enforce support? Because without these thing’s believe me, there is very little you can do for your child with SEN in a school environment. Even those with EHCPs often have to share their one to ones.

So you’re now advocating we exclude disabled children from school because it’s easier than supporting them?

You take things very literally…

Not illegal exclusions. Not unauthorised absences. The understanding that some days some children cannot be in the school environment due to their autism specifically. And other days they could be but the school doesn’t have the funding or paperwork to support them, which is a systemic issue but not one that can be fixed by simply sending your child into school anyway.

Id also say keep in mind that schooling is there for the majority who will use their education for future jobs. Many kids with ASD (and not all before you jump on me) will either not have a job at all or will be in and out of work over a lifetime. So as parents and carers of ASD or other neurodivergent children we have to balance the worth of school/education system vs their own welfare overall.

And you’re enabling that by being complicit in unlawful exclusions.

My daughter has an ehcp. I’m well aware of the difficulties.

Yes, I agree. It’s the start is the culture of presentism and will continue into the workplace in most cases in this country.

Someone said right at the beginning of the thread that wasn’t it depressing that physical
presence In the building was coming across as the be all and end all for how a school was being rated.

Never mind that a parent should be able to judge whether their child would benefit, and get better sooner, if they were allowed another day’s rest after illness. More important to be back in school, feeling rubbish, taking longer to recover and not learning effectively. But hey, they are in and sat on a seat. And only a GP can assess they are unwell enough to be off.

Again being very literal. You seem to be under the impression that being at school is an absolute must no matter the other circumstances bar very severe illness.
That doesn’t work for everyone. It’s not about some percentage on a paper, it’s about what is feasible for the individual.