Would you pay this school fine or risk it at court

[Coastingtohell25]

I know there is a lot of opinions on talking the kids out of school for holidays but I will not drip feed and I feel like I shouldn’t have to pay the fine.

We were informed that this year the school were not allowed to make allowances and everyone’s holiday request would be declined and it’s not their fault ( okay so I get this )

however the situation is as followed

DC class are away on residential mon -Friday to a sort of PGL like place. DC can’t attend for medical reasons and to be honest there was no real attempt to make it possible for them to attend.
parents were informed that if not attended they would be expected to be at school but DC is the only one not going. So we have booked a similar type holiday as a family at a well known family holiday park that dc enjoys which was very cheap due to not being in the holidays.

this will lead to a fine and I begrudge paying it to to be honest. Would I be unreasonable to stand my ground on this one ?

Sorry there is a lot to catch up on

in terms of funding the care it would be 24 hours of 21.00 an hour that would be 6 months dla. 3 k plus the trip fees and then the school said we would have to pay additional insurance
nearly 4k for a 5 day trip.

Well done - everyone seems to not be reading the OP properly.

Why can’t the school meet the medical needs, and what do they need to do to meet those needs?

Have you read ops updates? Makes things so much easier to understand.

Wow, you really don’t give a fuck about the disadvantages that many children with disabilities encounter on a daily basis in and out of school, do you?

“Pipe down at the back ‘cos I’m alright Jack”, seems to be your mantra.

Schools and LEA’s need to be made accountable when they fail to meet the educational needs of their disabled pupils, and taking cases like this to court is one way to expose that failure and hopefully, eventually bring about positive changes.

We had a mother who said her child couldn't go on residential due to medical needs and booked a holiday but still got fined. Bit different because he could have gone but the bottom line was, school was open so he could go in - they would get him helping out in lower years. I would suck it up.

This is irritating. It’s surely not too hard to figure it out. For example, a child with a condition like type 1 diabetes needs care but can do any activities. OP already said a nurse would be required for the trip. Parents of disabled children do the work of nurses for their own kids. It is hard.

My DD (type 1 diabetes) couldn’t go on a school trip if school couldn’t or wouldn’t provide a trained and willing pupil support assistant to do her daytime and overnight care. 24 hour care is quite different from keeping an eye on her during school hours. Unbelievably, staff don’t get paid for these extra hours or extra responsibility so we were very lucky (and pretty surprised) that someone volunteered to do it. We weren’t allowed to accompany her instead.

OP is entirely justified in her plans and I’d be tempted to use it an opportunity to highlight discrimination against disabled children at school. School/LA could provide a nurse and make the trip possible if they funded it. Leaving out a disabled child is unacceptable.

The ignorance and stupidity of some posters here makes the whole thing even worse.

If he could've gone, that isn't just a bit different, that's very different.

Disabled children have to suck it up every single day of their lives, they know about sucking it up more than anyone.

Disabled children miss out on enough and shouldn't be stuck in school for a week whilst their class is off having fun, it isn't fair and it's discriminatory.

Not all disabled children will be capable of helping out in the lower years and again, even if they were, why should they when their class is off having fun?

The mum was adamant he couldn't go because of a medical issue but as a school we were happy to take him.

I am not saying op shouldn't take her child away but she will probably get a fine.

am just answering her question about whether she should pay the fine. Don't need explaining how shit it is for disabled kids. Thank you.

Yes it is up to the school whether parents receive a fine or not. I have personal experience of this recently.

One school fined (despite extenuating circumstances) and the other school didn’t. When I spoke to the fine department as the absence had been recorded incorrectly, they advised me that they were instructed by the school to fine me and I would need to speak to the school to amend the incorrect absence.

Just pay the fine. The school don't decide to apply a fine, the local authority do. They won't care if you're standing your ground or not.

then you should be focussing your efforts at protesting this and making the school adhere to being inclusive.

You are in the wrong, pay the fine.

Take him in for his morning mark on the Monday and then collect him at lunch time.

They can only fine if you have 10 units off, if you do it this way he'll only have 9 and they won't be able to fine you. (Unless you already have some unauthorised absence)

You're not being unreasonable in so much as it is infuriating that they can't cater for his needs and therefore he will be the only child staying behind, but by not paying the fine (if one comes) it could end up with court dates, prosecution, and a bigger fine. Is it worth dying on that hill to make a point? Have you spoken to the school about the possibility of getting a special exemption to have the leave authorised? They may or may not realise that it will be better for your child and themselves (saves them having to have teaching staff available for one child) & agree to authorise enough to avoid a fine.
Have a lovely holiday. If it comes down to it and you do get a fine, pay it but write a letter of complaint to the school, governors and local authority saying that they couldn't cater for his needs for him to join the trip & risked his mental health having him stay at school alone whilst all his peers went away.

If OP gets a fine, she should fight it.

I'm in a similar position with my disabled son and I'm telling the school that he'll be ill. If they make a fuss and try to fine me, I won't be sucking it up.

Phone him in sick for the first day then the first day won’t be unauthorised. Then only the remaining 4 days will be unauthorised and you won’t meet the threshold for the fine.

Oh bless that you think this is enough.

Disabled kids frequently miss school trips because schools are not willing to do the work it takes for them to be able to go. Sure the law says they have to, but what do you think parents can do if they say no?

@Coastingtohell25I would take this one to court. I’d love to see a Local Authority be challenged on it.

I’d have a word with the head and explain that your child has been discriminated against because of their health/disabilry and no reasonable adjustments were made to allow them to attend… so your child was upset and rather than them being the only one in the class that week, you took them to do the activities the school made no attempt to allow them to attend. Tell them if you’re fined that you will be making an official complaint about the disability discrimination

Yeah! Protest this. That will work.

Just do a holiday form and if you get a fine just pay. Unless you have the energy to fight it. You might not have to go to court, you could speak to the head. I think you have reasonable grounds for this holiday but it's your call. My 2 girls are autistic and I've taken them out of school once every year so far (they're 8 and 10) for a butlins break. No fines so I guess we've been lucky. They don't always fine you when they understand a situation.

I would ask if they would waive the fine in these circumstances, it's not fair that your child cannot go on the activity residential so why shouldn't they do something else suitable instead? I'm assuming this is primary school? It's bringing home the fact your child has actually been discriminated against. I think they should be happy to quietly brush this one under the carpet. It's not as if the education they would receive in another year/class at that age will be of any huge benefit, for 5 days, and the rest of their class will not be doing the same education. I'd ask, you have nothing to lose as you would have to announce the absence anyway.

Ring your child in sick that week with anxiety as she feels different to everyone else and doesn’t want to be in school with no one in her year.

Pay the fine and get it over and done. It will be more stressful than it's worth if you don't.

If he stayed in school, would the 1-2-1 still work with him?

Having a good relationship with school helps, such as volunteering, being a parent governor etc for them understanding. However they can not rise above the law so unfortunately as parents we do face the same repercussions. I know, it does sound unfair, it is.