To send my children to school today even though they are unwell and clearly contagious

[sicknotez]

They both have nasty coughs/colds. I know that the best thing for them would be rest (and their inhalers). I know they are clearly contagious.

But under the new rules as I understand I would need a doctor's note or it would be unauthorised absence? And it doesn't seem right to waste a stretched doctors time with this when they don't need anything prescribing.

So I guess I send them into school and wait for school to send them home and in the meantime they will infect their teachers and classmates?

It seems like a stupid new system to me.

They both have chronic conditions so it's likely they will need quite a number of days off in the year. Despite this they are both steaming along in top sets. They love learning and hate missing school and would happily do work at home when ill if teachers sent them some

365. Schools are not expected to routinely request that parents provide medical evidence to support illness absences. Schools should only request reasonable medical evidence in cases where they need clarification to accurately record absence in the attendance register – i.e. making a decision that code I is the absence code that accurately describes the reason the pupil is not in school for the session in question. In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school will be that evidence and can be accepted without question or concern. Only where the school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical evidence be requested to support the absence.

I think what the op is bizzarely saying is she knows the link she provided doesn’t evidence what’s she’s saying as that is not what the link says, it’s unauthorised absences on the link, apparently her school has rules over and above this and she can’t provide a link to that. So I’m unsure why she posted one which is irrelevant.

I don't know if someone already mentioned this, but our state school is basically saying if you also take more than those 5 days in a 12 week period that they will also consider fining you! So better hope they don't get sick more than once in 3 months!
It's an absolute joke, illness is illness an they are just kids.
I will be defying it where necessary, if my child is not well, they won't be in, this is not the army!

Gosh. I find that very surprising. Presumably they’re trying to crack down on the parents who say their children are ill when they aren’t really, but I can’t understand why they wouldn’t accept medical evidence. I would ask the principal / governors / Trust for an explanation. If you have Parent Governors, contact them and ask them to raise this issue. I’d want to know what they allow as authorised absence.

You could ask you MP to contact the Schools Minister.

Surely the key word here is "consider". No-one wants you to send your children to school if they are really ill.

It annoys me especially about my youngest as they regularly give me a call to tell me how great he's doing and to ask if there's any concerns (he has an EHCP due to his ASD) they say how they haven't ever had any concerns about him, how his behaviour is exemplary, he is consistently top of his year in at least 5 subjects and they had him to help others in English, Maths and Physics. He's also brutally honest, and even when he was young, has never lied about being ill, in fact the opposite, he never complains even when he is poorly.

I feel like they just think his illness was fabricated now. I'm getting angrier the more I think about it.

Your attitude is a bit odd to the other posters here.

Fair enough, your kids aren’t well, you’ve got a letter from last year advising of policies and you’re not sure what to do. For me, logically the next step would be to contact the school and seek their advice. The time you spent rebutting other posters could have been sent sending an email or calling the school. If they advise not to bring them in, you’re covered. If they advise to bring them in, you’re covered.

No need to go down a black hole of doom and gloom.

It's just the fact that the decision would be hanging over your shoulders whilst you would be doing the responsible thing and taking care of your children. Just seems really wrong to me. It's obvious which ones bend the rules, they shouldn't then threaten everyone with tighter sanctions.

How is it "obvious"? And even if it was, by treating different parents differently aren’t they doing exactly what they say and considering each case?

@sicknotez enjoys being a drama llama.

It's so much more entertaining than actually addressing the underlying reasons for her children's chronic conditions that cause them to miss so much school.

Just to clarify - Illness, doctors/hospital appointments, dental appointments, funerals etc are all ‘authorised absence’.
The new rules are in relation to ‘unauthorised absence’ - in short, taking your child out of School for a holiday.
Nothing to worry about in regards to illness. Keep them at home OP.

This would annoy me so much

Could you call Drs so they have a record of your dc being ill

Then would tell the school they can call the Dr themselves to check you spoke to surgery and go through that rigamarole and time wasting

Sick note is a nonsense and unnecessary

So did you send them in??

Just leaving this here.

It's 15 days OP

The guidance is here. For someone with a medical condition, school can annotate with an I code.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf

Both of my younger children get migraines, they will definitely have more than 15 days off in the year.

Why the need to be so unpleasant?

Her kids have asthma. Asthma often ramps up with respiratory illnesses, it's not a case of not being on top of it.

The guidelines are not in place for situations like yours. Presumably the school are aware of your children’s chronic conditions + particularly if they are performing well / parents are engaged with the school they are going to see zero red flags that require them to pursue you for evidence.

the guidelines are in place to try to crack down on situations where children persistently absent from education without good reason.

if you start randomly taking your children out of school for days out / letting them skip school to avoid an argument etc etc and then claiming illness - then the school will require evidence or record it as unauthorised to flag to local authorities.

you’re fine. Tuck up your children.

❤️

We are working closely with the asthma clinic. How exactly do you think their illnesses are my fault ?

The biggest issue is other people being encouraged by attendance awards /fines etc to send their children in when ill, which then means my children get very ill.

love this

It is indeed. This is one of the consequences of the fundamentally idiotic fining system we have.

The new system is about holidays, not illness.

👏👏👏