AIBU to think laws that fine and jail parents for school absence, outside term time holidays, are ridiculous?

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Is it a good law, fining parents for school absence? What are the good outcome measures, good citizens, with better mental health, peaceful country, reduced crime rates, homicide rates? Has it worked in your country?

Or is it a ridiculous law? Most parents, dream of and love to, have children who enjoy, thrive and excel in school. Parents may have other misdemeanours, but why turn school attendance into the battle ground, the yard stick to measure and punish? Perhaps consider is punishment the right way to go about this, what about the help for every child, and every parent who struggles?

I'm not talking about going on holiday during term time.

I don't understand how to vote, please can you explain which is which?

For what it's worth, I'm a teacher (and a parent) and think it's a terrible system!

YABU. Attendance is one of the top 3 indicators of a child’s academic success. There’s an attendance crisis in education since Covid. They need to do something and yes, if you take your DC out for 2 weeks you’ll be fined but this isn’t really aimed at those families. It’s really to target the persistent offenders whose children regularly miss periods of school.

I think it’s probably a reasonable system. There needs to be some disincentive to stop everyone from taking time out during the school term. And then it’s just a maths thing, do I save enough to cover the cost of the fine if I’m going to get one. We’ve found a compromise that if you take them out a couple of days before the end of term, they don’t miss anything and we can save 25-20% of the cost of the trip (and at half term you have the benefit of being able to chill out at home for a couple of days before the start of the new half term).

I agree with you to an extent. I think parents of children who can’t go to school for medical or mental health reasons, but are communicating with the school and intend to go back to school whenever possible, should not be fined. I think parents who can’t be bothered should be sanctioned.

I don't understand - the rules have been in place since long before covid, haven't they? If they worked surely there wouldn't be an attendance crisis?

@SummerHols2026 the issue is it doesn’t target persistent offenders. It does target otherwise good parents who take their child on holiday.

I say this as a parent that hasn’t been fined (but maybe next year) and as someone who works with those persistent offenders.

It's a lazy way of trying to prevent neglect and abuse.

Taking your own child on holiday for 2 weeks is not abuse nor neglect. It should be a parents right to decide.

But because none of our services are funded properly because the men running our government are pilfering as much of our tax as they can for them and their greedy rich mates. Schools are underfunded so teachers are over worked and under paid. Same for social services. So rather than fixing that and making sure schools are able to teach kids with some flexibility. And social services are able to actually do something abuse actually abused and neglected children. They make it easier for the services to manage on less by burdening, as usual, the people with less money.

The “attendance crisis “ has been triggered by a lot of things including covid and the lack of support for SEN ( inclusion costs more than special schools and hiding such kids away ) and the rise of the “self made man” - the arrogant ignore all the experts I know better thought pattern - who is despising of education - education which has been belittled and run down by years of Tory rule

School attendance is a huge issue for a minority of children. Over the years I have been teaching, of the parents who have been fined, their children have had attendances as low as 30%. There are families who are serial term-time holiday-goers too. Families whose children always seem to be ill on a Friday and a Monday, whose children only see their fathers for 2 weeks in September so have to go on holiday then (after holidaying with mum at the end of June), families whose children regularly take extended 6 week holidays back to the parent’s home country for their second cousins wedding, parents who just cannot be arsed sending their children to school.
These are children who absolutely are missing out on education. What do you suggest happens to their parents?

We need longer holidays in this country, that way it would be less condensed into a very short, busy, expensive time so parents would have more choices. I also think that children's mental health and wellbeing would be improved. I've never understood why this country has such limited holidays.

I'm a teacher.

I also think it's terrible. It doesn't actually stop parents from booking term time holidays either - they just factor the potential fine into the holiday cost (and its still cheaper than a holiday in the school holidays). It just causes a lot of worry and frustration.

However, I do understand the concerns around school attendance because it can indicate/hide safeguarding concerns (eg waiting for bruises to heal, risk of child disclosing immediately after an incident, hiding children from professional eyes generally).

However, that's not the same as a week off for a holiday and the pattern of absence is different.

However, a child in my class last year took 5 weeks off throughout the year for holidays. That's excessive.

There are many reasons why parents take children out of school and some are entirely reasonable: a child who is not suited to the system and is miserable, illness, funeral of family member etc. I would also include holidays as these are life-enhancing and may only be affordable for some in term time.

Those families who regularly fail to get their children ready on time for school or to bother to get them there are the minority and often poor and have had bad school experiences themselves - they need help and support for their problems not financial punishment which they cannot pay and then find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

The key is to ask why the children are not in school and to address those reasons. Doing this costs money - easier to slap on a fine and criminalize already disadvantaged parents.

The new national framework I presume the OP is referring to was introduced in August 2024.

You are being unreasonable, it is a good law.
Decades of repeatable and valid research shows that children whose parents prioritise education have better educational outcomes than those who don't.

You don't want to discuss term-time holidays but it is obvious that because the majority of families do value education and won't choose those weeks, therefore demand is lower and prices are cheaper.
Irresponsible, neglectful parents who don't value education do choose those weeks, and their children's educational outcomes suffer in a measurable demonstrable way that damages them long-term.

The parents who would rather have the cheap holidays do not care about the evidence, and do not care that their decisions are harming their children. The only thing the law can do is impose fines that should be big enough to exceed the difference between the price of a termtime holiday vs the price of the same holiday in actual holiday time. The fines are not big enough.

Imprisonment is rare and only happens if a parent is so pig-headed about being above the law that such drastic action is a positive benefit to the children.

The escalation process is intended to target those who persistently take their children out. Hence the parenting order / risk of prosecution at 3rd offence.

It’s not a flat fine for every absence without escalation.

We have the same in Australia and to make sure you pay it's deducted from your benefits

I think you're making too big a deal of it tbh. Attendance at school is very important so there should be some disincentive for absence, else everybody will say 'Yes but it's OK for me to take my kids out for our fortnight in Malaga culturally enriching travel experience, it's the oiks they should be targeting'. It is a blunt instrument but what else is supposed to happen? Yes you can have a more social-workery type system like some Asian countries do, but a) nobody wants to pay for it, and b) the people that moan about fines would moan about that too.

I’ve seen a few posts online of kids getting their GCSE results and bombing them and the parents ( actually it was all mothers) are almost amused by it. It would be really interesting to know what’s going on in those households to see if there’s a common denominator.

I’ve definitely had conversations with y11 boys who are still turning up despite being extremely disengaged with school, who in years gone by would have stopped attending probably by Feb Y11. They’ve told me they’re still attending ‘because you have to, right, or your mum goes to jail’.

So it works for some.

It did have a huge impact on term time holidays for a bit, then some started calculating that the fine was less than the saving so it was still worth it. Term time holidays are creeping back up again but at my school are still less than they were.

It’s just a data point for government and ofsted to beat schools with when they inspect them. It’s not about the children or their education.

It is ruining the relationship between school staff and parents, which then leads to worst learning and personal outcomes for children.

The fines were meant for persistent truants not families going on holiday. It has become an easy money making scheme for the government and that is it.

And I work in education.

I’ll go against the grain and say term time holidays shouldn’t be fined unless a family take the absolute piss and drag their DC out of school for 2-3 weeks. Most parents dodge the fining system by going 2-3 days before their kids break up or after they’ve gone back anyway. Who can even afford to go during the holidays? It’s extortionate.

Rubbish! You can still value your child’s education and have a term time holiday. I’d rather parents read with their children regularly, be present in their learning and education and take them on a term time holiday annually.

Than a child have 100% attendance and the parents not listening to them read or care about their education.

The evidence of attendance isnt about holidays it is just about attendance! I missed 6 weeks on my education due to having an external pins in my arm, did it affect my education , no! Plus a term time 2 week holidays each year.

I think society has had enough of people who produce lots of children and don’t parent them. Like those boys driving the wrong way up motorways.
Education is important & parents need to be held accountable. If you have a free state education out in a third world country they’d attend. We’re too used to feckless behaviour.

Do the fines actually help?

Its a tiny price compared to hoildays.
Childten who dont want to be in school still cant be dragged into school
Long term illness wont suddenly get better

The only group it may help would be youngerPrimary where the parents struggle to get theur child to school.

Fines don’t help and they are often not collected as the non attending children have health or mental health issues.
it’s a pointless punishment that is rarely collected.