Up to 100,000 children missing from school rolls

[TheDailyCarbunkle]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60054253

If anyone has any doubt about the risk created by lockdowns, doubt no more. Many of those children will be absolutely fine, well cared for, educated at home. But many many of them will not - without regular attendance at school and someone outside their family monitoring them daily, they will have just fallen through the cracks. Who knows what the final fallout of this will be?

Wow that is very concerning

Another case in Essex today where an adult has been charged with murdering a baby in 2020.

I think it's just the tip of the iceberg.

That's a huge number! It made me wonder how many were missing from school rolls prior to COVID and in my search I came across this article where 49,000 children had been 'off-rolled' by schools.

This article found 55,000 'unexplained exits': "What we mean by unexplained exits is those which do not appear to have a reason based in decisions made freely by families."

So this seems to have been a problem since well before COVID.

I wonder how may are children whose families did not think it safe to send them into school, because of the lack of any Covid mitigations except open windows?

I do know of a couple of families with CEV members where children have been removed to be home-schooled because the risk of infection being brought home from school is considered too great.

@bagofconkers

That's a huge number! It made me wonder how many were missing from school rolls prior to COVID and in my search I came across this article where 49,000 children had been 'off-rolled' by schools.

This article found 55,000 'unexplained exits': "What we mean by unexplained exits is those which do not appear to have a reason based in decisions made freely by families."

So this seems to have been a problem since well before COVID.

There's a very big difference between 49,000 and 100,000 - if those figures were touted in relation to covid people would definitely be up in arms. These are not 'unexplained exits' either - these are children that are genuinely just missing off rolls, as in they simply don't know what's going on with them. It turns out that if you send children home for months on end and have no way of knowing what's going on with them, it has an impact. Who could have predicted that?

(Of course many decided to electively home educate after lock down because they realised it suited the child well, or realised that school-based anxiety for the child was a much bigger issue than they'd thought. But there is definitely a big issue with off-rolling which is out of the parents' hands.)

It's easy to represent the absences as 'because of lockdowns'. It is equally possible that many could be the reverse - because schools were not Covid-safe when reopened after lockdowns, children did not return.

If a child previously attended school but is no longer on a school roll, the parents must have written to the school to withdraw their child - that's the procedure. Otherwise they would still be on the roll, but 'missing in education'.

It's a shame the LAs don't keep track of what these children are doing and I think that's why a register is being discussed at the moment.

There has definitely been a big increase in elective home education post-lockdown. And there has definitely been a big increase in school-based anxiety post-lockdown. Definitely worth looking at why that is.

@cantkeepawayforever

It's easy to represent the absences as 'because of lockdowns'. It is equally possible that many could be the reverse - because schools were not Covid-safe when reopened after lockdowns, children did not return.

Whatever the reason, children being unaccounted for is a cause for concern. They could be absolutely fine, or they could be in a horrible abusive situation, the problem is that nobody actually knows. There's a very good reason why children attend school every day and someone follows up if they fail to attend.

It's certainly not a new problem or directly caused by covid measures, but covid measures are allowing it to happen to a greater degree. I have a pre school child and I raised concerns over his development in January 2020, so pre covid, and two years later I'm still calling, emailing, chasing, begging for help and not getting it. I'm getting my child on the radar because I'm persistent and want my child to be helped. Those with children who don't care, who aren't calling, who aren't emailing, who aren't reaching out, are the ones going under the radar and covid needs to stop being used as an excuse for the vulnerable in our society to be cut adrift.

I couldn't give a toss how many politicians had parties, cheese and wine, whatever. What makes me so angry I could cry, is people raising concerns over the welfare of children like Arthur and being told they would be arrested for breaking covid rules if they went to the house. That makes me SICK. No more covid excuses, it needs to STOP.

I agree, OP. I also wonder how many would return if schools were made safer through good ventilation and lower Covid cases?

Another factor could be Brexit. Families leaving the UK to return to their home countries.

There's a very good reason why children attend school every day and someone follows up if they fail to attend.

Well that’s the thing, they don’t. There’s a lot of talk about these ‘ghost children’ and it turns out they’re no one’s responsibility to chase.

The children’s commissioner has only recently launched a call to investigate where these children are and why they are missing school, and this is only in 10 LAs. No idea whether anyone will be checking up on the rest of them.

If you think schools should be doing it then this will need funding and resourcing.

@noblegiraffe

There's a very good reason why children attend school every day and someone follows up if they fail to attend.

Well that’s the thing, they don’t. There’s a lot of talk about these ‘ghost children’ and it turns out they’re no one’s responsibility to chase.

The children’s commissioner has only recently launched a call to investigate where these children are and why they are missing school, and this is only in 10 LAs. No idea whether anyone will be checking up on the rest of them.

Are you saying your child's school doesn't call if your child fails to attend?

Popping on here to say I know of special schools for children with disabilities shut in March 2020 and did not reopen til the next school year. These are also ghost children, their needs ignored, discounted, not considered. Obvs nothing new there, sigh.

It's been a problem long before covid. Mostly it's families who legitimately move areas (no secrecy) and forget to tell the school they are leaving (usually because it's summer holidays). Some have moved abroad. Some have decided to homeschool but deliberately didn't tell the school for whatever reason. Nobody knows how many are vulnerable children, hopefully it's a very small percentage

If that were the case for all these missing children then the Children’s commissioner wouldn’t have had to launch an investigation to find them, Carbunkle. We are talking about persistent absence here, possibly not even on a school roll.

@noblegiraffe

If that were the case for all these missing children then the Children’s commissioner wouldn’t have had to launch an investigation to find them, Carbunkle. We are talking about persistent absence here, possibly not even on a school roll.

You know exactly what I mean noblegiraffe so I'm not going to discuss this further with you because I think you're just being obtuse.

Suffice it to say that sending children home for months on end with no regular expectation of them being anywhere, no adult contact outside their immediate family, is extremely risky and the data here supports that.

Yes, some of it will be due to poor data keeping, children moving etc. But some of it will be down to the fact that without daily school some children's lives fall apart entirely and no one even notices.

Where I used to live, sending teenagers to India/Pakistan/Bangladesh because they were in "trouble" often this meant dating, was quite common, teachers knew but officially they were missing from education.

@TheDailyCarbunkle

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60054253

If anyone has any doubt about the risk created by lockdowns, doubt no more. Many of those children will be absolutely fine, well cared for, educated at home. But many many of them will not - without regular attendance at school and someone outside their family monitoring them daily, they will have just fallen through the cracks. Who knows what the final fallout of this will be?

It is a big number, big numbers are good, presumably this is enough triumph of Boris Johnson's government.

Are you saying your child's school doesn't call if your child fails to attend?

I think you have misunderstood how this comes about, and therefore how it doesn't fall to a particular school:

• Child is never registered for a school
• Child is electively home educated.
• Child leaves school A because they are moving (school / town / county/ country), and doesn't start another school.
• Child leaves primary, doesn't start secondary

A school will call to chase the absence of a child on their roll who is absent. However, once removed from - or never appearing on - their roll, then schools quite reasonably don't follow up.

Suffice it to say that sending children home for months on end with no regular expectation of them being anywhere, no adult contact outside their immediate family, is extremely risky and the data here supports that

Equally, failing to make schools safe for them to return to keeps children out of school who could reasonably return - many families have been caught in a hard place between health of loved ones and sending children to school, and have selected home education as the lesser of the two evils. With safer schools, they would return.

(Personal anecdata - I know of children missing from school for this reason. I do not know of any who have disappeared and not come back post lockdown without CEV within the family being a factor)

@cantkeepawayforever

Are you saying your child's school doesn't call if your child fails to attend?

I think you have misunderstood how this comes about, and therefore how it doesn't fall to a particular school:

• Child is never registered for a school
• Child is electively home educated.
• Child leaves school A because they are moving (school / town / county/ country), and doesn't start another school.
• Child leaves primary, doesn't start secondary

A school will call to chase the absence of a child on their roll who is absent. However, once removed from - or never appearing on - their roll, then schools quite reasonably don't follow up.

Children who are never enrolled at school as they are going to be home schooled or have been taken out of school for this reason should still be on the radar of any local authority education department. Home schooling still requires certain elements of the curriculum to be met, so it should not be a case of a child being home schooled and their progress never checked by anyone ever. This is relying on local authority staff being on the ball, and like most other services, the efficiency in doing this will vary massively.

@bagofconkers

If a child previously attended school but is no longer on a school roll, the parents must have written to the school to withdraw their child - that's the procedure. Otherwise they would still be on the roll, but 'missing in education'.

It's a shame the LAs don't keep track of what these children are doing and I think that's why a register is being discussed at the moment.

There has definitely been a big increase in elective home education post-lockdown. And there has definitely been a big increase in school-based anxiety post-lockdown. Definitely worth looking at why that is.

Not strictly accurate. Children can be removed from the school roll without a letter after 20 days of non-attendance (It's what happened with Khyra Ishaq, she was never electively home educated, she was always CME due to non-attendance) but the school MUST do everything it can to confirm the whereabouts of said child. However, since the law change in 2016 the school is legally obligated to report to the LA any child removed from the register who hasn't reached a natural transition point (e.g going from primary to secondary school) so if this happens, they will be added to the CME register and the LA are supposed to follow it up.