Legal consequences if we withdraw child from school? (vulnerable family, rare medical conditions)

[SouthLondonDaddy]

Does any one know what the legal framework is for a family with a child in a state primary school in England, if the whole family decided to self-isolate because of some extremely rare medical conditions which put the family at greater risk?

Can the school call social services?
Can they withdraw the child's place?

Please note that the question is NOT: shall we self-isolate, are you, etc - so let's please keep this on topic.
It is a fairly factual question on what the bureaucracy and the legal framework is; the subjective part is hoping it gets applied sensibly.

A lot of people are keeping there kids off it seems tell the school your self isolating
Then after a week if still open say there still ill
It gives you time leading upto easter holidays Then re assess after dont know if they will add extra time to easter it has been rumoured if it continues and you dont feel comfortable sending them either discuss with the head depends on there stance they might be understanding or deregister to home educate i think under the current circumstances its going to be hard for them to enforce the fines

Read the attendance policy of your school. You are legally required to send your child to school and you have to assume that unless the law is changed due to these exceptional times, you will be taken to court, be fined, and the school place taken away after 20 days of non-attendance.

You can always request that your child can be educated from home. If your head knows your circumstances they may authorise it, but unlikely unless it's the child who has a condition that public heath says needs to self-isolate.

Your other option which will save a lot of stress is to withdraw your child from school and officially homeschool, and give up the place, and hope there is a place again when you are ready to return to school. It sounds like your family's health is more important than the school place?

My gut feeling, as someone who works in a school office but doesn't deal much with attendance, is that they won't call social services if you keep them regularly informed of what you are doing and why. They (school/EWO) may well send someone around to your house in which case you and your child can have a polite conversation with them through an open window 2 metres away from one another.

"but unlikely unless it's the child who has a condition that public heath says needs to self-isolate. "

It's not the child that's vulnerable, but an adult with a very rare condition, and the child could be a carrier. The average GP has never even heard of the condition.

You say that you have a persistent cough and are self isolating with the children for 2 weeks. Thus takes you through the Easter holidays. Schools will not be reopened after Easter. You can then play it by ear if they reopen before September.

First before you do anything drastic I'd wait to hear what the news release is, because I think shortly we're going to be told that over 70s and medically vulnerable people should now lock down. That will cover you; if (imagining that there is going to be the time, staff and interest to chase this through due process in the next few months) you ended up having to justify your decision.

You can for the time being do the 'oh child has a temp/sniffle/govt advice is...' and bide your time a bit. A HT on another thread has said this is what she is quietly suggesting to vulnerable families that they do.

You can if really driven to it, de register your child, home educate and return to school when you feel it's the right time to do so, but I would go with the sniffle/temp line for now and wait a bit. I suspect a number of parents who are able to will simply keep their children off until they feel things are clearer and that normal processes around attendance will be overlooked as there will be more important things to think about.

Cross post with pelican who said all that brilliantly and far more succinctly!

"You say that you have a persistent cough and are self isolating with the children for 2 weeks"
Which basically means: when the government comes up with guidelines which the entire scientific community is questioning, don't expect British bureaucracy to be sensible, don't be fully upfront, but try to play the system.

How sad to have to reach these conclusions...

Also, this condition is particularly rare - most GPs have never even heard of it and it was misdiagnosed plenty of times precisely because it's so rare.

BUT I find it crazy that no one is telling grandparents not to pick up kids from schools. No one is giving any advice to families who have suffered from pneumonia or asthma. Etc. Those are not rare one-in-a-million conditions no one has even heard of. I am speechless.

What's the Head like at your school? We're in a similar position to you, spoke to the Head, and they were really supportive and gave us permission to take our children out of school.

Government guidelines is only to isolate for one week with a cough. So you might want to share the cough out

BUT I find it crazy that no one is telling grandparents not to pick up kids from schools.

I think all the advice is for grandparents above 70 to be staying away from grandchildren.

There is no way anyone can prove your child hasn't got a fever or cough atm. Nor that you havent got concerns that your child has been in contact with a suspected case.

The self reporting nature of this and the current advice to air of the side of caution makes enforcing none attendance difficult.

As it stands the government effectively has not issued any guidance for special needs or special health requirements either. This puts them on shaky ground should you keep your child off for this reason.

If they decided to take you to court for non attendance or withdraw a school place there's a good case for discrimination because of that absence of special assessment.

The situation is extremely confusing and conflicting. It's leaving schools, parents and local authorities in a very difficult position.

In reality I do think it would be impossible to take action against parents whose child has got a medical condition.

Parents keeping kids off will just serve to highlight the glaring policy hole that the government are trying to ignore tbh.

Or for them to take action against a parent who needs to isolate because of their own health condition.

You say that you have a persistent cough and are self isolating with the children for 2 weeks. Thus takes you through the Easter holidays. Schools will not be reopened after Easter. You can then play it by ear if they reopen before September.

This is what I would do.

With the 20 days thing you could technically buy some time by sending your child into school for one day before their persistent cough unfortunately returns.