Attendance under 40%

[justcurious1234567]

Hello all, this is potentially really outing so apologies if it seems vague at times.

I’m just curious as to what action a school or authorities may take if a primary aged child has school attendance under 40%?

It’s a tricky situation as the child’s parents are separated, with one now living some distance away so limited contact. The school has contacted this parent to raise concerns as the resident parent is not sending the child to school.

Objectively I would have thought by now the authorities would have taken action?

Resident parent does not have any known health conditions. Child does not seem to object to going, they always talk positively of school when without their resident parent.

To me this screams safeguarding?

Are you the non resident parent?

Ate you sure you know everything about the situation and whether there are any reasons for such low attendance?

I’m surprised it has been allowed to get to this stage without any kind of intervention. Surely the school have made some kind of effort to get to the bottom of the absence level?

It depends why the attendance is only 40% to be honest.

I am neither parent, but a relative. Completely appreciate there could be something mitigating on the resident parents part, but what? I have obviously considered they may have a life limiting condition that they haven’t told anyone about but I think this is unlikely.

School will have been in touch with the resident parent well before it got to this stage.

in some circumstances the full support/hassling parents operation does not swing in - eg child below age if 5, medical reasons, etc.

Child is mid primary age.
The resident parent has said she struggles to get child to school due to transport. So a taxi was provided, she declined to allow child to use it.

Sounds like the normal process is at work then.

school contacted the resident parent to find out what if any barriers there were to getting the child to school.

transport was cited, school sorted out a solution.
taxi is one of the standard solutions.

resident parent is clearly engaging with the process at some level otherwise no conversation would have happened.

Why do you need to know OP? This is between the school, LEA, parents and any other relevant professionals. There could be lots going on but it’s not your business.

That’s fair. I guess it’s from a place of concern about the child. They express that they love school and want to go but the parent doesn’t let them. They talk about how the parent lets them stay up until midnight etc instead.

Can you offer any help at all with school runs?

To add to my last post, if you feel the child is in any danger, obviously report, but presumably the other child’s parent would be in top of that. Also, I believe the school will very much be on this. One of my child’s attendances went down to 80% ish for genuine reason. Even with medical notes and us keeping the school updated, I’d go as far as to say we were harassed by the school. I know others who had similar experiences too, so with a much lower attendance, the school and other relevant professionals will likely be very much on this.

Thank you @ThatDogCanNotPossiblyStillBeHungry

Unfortunately the non resident parent is not raising the issue as he is unable to care for the child practically (a whole other set of circumstances). It’s very complicated but that’s why i feel I need to advocate for the child.

Then if it is genuine concern, you could raise it with the school and tell them what you know. Obviously they will rightly not share any detail with you, but it may help them build a picture as to what is going on.

The part that concerns me about your post is where you said

‘Completely appreciate there could be something mitigating on the resident parents part, but what?’

This does make it seem like you just want to be nosy unfortunately. If that isn’t the case, I apologise.

I do think the chances are that there is far more to this situation than you know and that the school and other professionals are already on top of it. However, children do occasionally slip through the net and if your intentions are genuine, you may feel more at ease that you have given what you know to the school and helped protect the child if they need any help.