Ebsa and attendance

[SimpleDayss]

I’m currently on an attendance warning from the LA because my daughter’s attendance has dropped to 82%. The frustrating thing is that she attends school every single day and is rarely actually absent. The attendance figure is low because she has EBSA (Emotionally Based School Avoidance), and getting her into school each morning is a huge challenge.
Most days I do eventually get her there, but it’s often after 9.30am. Once she’s late enough, it gets marked as an unauthorised absence, which has had a big impact on her attendance percentage despite her physically attending school every day.
I’ve had the official warning letter and have been told her attendance needs to improve.
Today she’s come home from school feeling genuinely unwell with a high temperature and headache. I really don’t want to send her in tomorrow or Friday if she’s ill, but I’m worried about how that will look given the attendance warning.
If she’s off sick and I report it properly, would that normally be authorised? And do authorised absences still count against attendance percentages? I’m particularly concerned because the attendance issues aren’t due to me keeping her off school - they’re entirely related to the morning difficulties caused by her EBSA. Also people have told me it shouldn’t be marked as unauthorised if she is there but late, but I'm pretty sure that is correct and it’s classed as unauthorised. Please no nasty comments like I said she is in every day.

I can't answer your actual question, but I would be keeping a log yourself of her attendance.

Also keep a log of all communications you have asking for help for her eg from CAMHS.

Are you getting support? There are groups for EBSA. I think 'not fine in school' may be worth searching for.

It seems a bit early to be considering keeping her off for the next two
days just because she’s come home hot and headachey on a day that has reached record temperatures.wouldn’t it be better to ensure she is properly hydrated, cool her down and then see how she feels?

A child arriving late every day is disruptive to a whole class and can’t be ignored as nothing.

Thanks but that’s not what I’m asking im
asking if they are being coded correctly as I’ve been told it isnt and someone whose child is 14% attendance has told me they’ve never once even received a letter over it. Most of the schools around here are shut.

Ebsa should be recorded as I. It’s in the DOE guideline. You need to follow the school complaints procedure to challenge this.

what support is she grttgrom school?

The support is i have to go in once a week for an hour every week for a meeting. DD doesnt drink water at all at school despite being sent with it it isn’t touched and it wasnt “just a headache” she has a high temperature as well and is feeling unwell, im sorry if it disrupts other kids but my child is my priority and I just want to understand how it’s being marked down as people have told me if she’s in she shouldn’t be marked as absent, if there was a fire then shes marked as not being there.

Does the school agree with your diagnosis of EBSA or do you have support from other professionals that have provided that diagnosis?

Ebsa is not a diagnosis..

“Instead, EBSA is a descriptive term used by schools, educational psychologists, local authorities, and support services to describe children or young people who struggle to attend school because of significant emotional distress, often anxiety.”

Please can people comment if they have actual advice and experience with ebsa rather than to just be rude

In my experience it is correct in being marked as unauthorised absence. It’s because the register closes at a set time, so they do the register, if she is not present at time of registration then she is marked accordingly. It usually would be code “U” which means although she arrived, it was after registration closed and so unauthorised absence.

Maybe something you have already tried but could you start the process of going to school earlier? My nephew struggled similarly and same as you he did eventually go in but it was late so they essentially shifted his morning earlier so that instead of say an hour of refusal meaning arriving at 9:30, it would be arriving at 8:45-9.

no I can’t do that sadly i have another child in another school whose transport is at a certain time so I can’t leave till then.

My DD has EBSA, at first they were marking her absences down as unauthorised until I found the DfE guidelines and sent them a screenshot. A parent saying a child is too ill to come to school, be that physically or mentally, is enough ‘evidence’ for school. If she’s only ever late and not actually off for full days then they should not be marking her absent for a full day. Might be worth ringing your local council and ask to speak to the Attendance Team. They were very helpful to me when school were trying to mark my DD as unauthorised absence. Feel free to pm me as I’ve been where you are.

Is there no flexibility on that? The schools register will close at a set time, ask the school what time that is if you don’t know yet, if a child arrives after that it will be an unauthorised absence.

I’ve done the ( very long ) ebsa training and feel the attendance rules now are not in line with this at times. My observation was that parents with neurodiverse children or if you say EBSA children are really struggling but the staff able to do all the Ebsa advice are not in place ( I’m a therapist who was working in ascondary school and left as not supported ) In theory ebsa is great but needs staff available to support the children and support families and attendance rules not to punish parents

Literally no one has been rude though? People are asking for clarification to help advise.

@Jellybunny98you are completely incorrect. EBSA carries different rules entirely that schools have to follow

No my other child is disabled and attends a special school I cannot take them on the school run with me.

Ebsa is not a diagnosis so I’d really rather people not come alone being “smart”

Thank you I will look into this, they are marking her for the morning not the whole day she gets the afternoon mark but is marked as absent for the while morning even 1 minute past the cut off

They shouldn’t be, at the most it should be just ‘late’ not ‘absent’. Definitely contact Attendance Team at the council, they can liaise with school for you if necessary

Arrived in school after the registration has closed is coded as U, which is classed as unauthorised absence for statistical purposes. Although the reasons behind it absolutely should be considered and they should not proceed to further action around being late. Instead they should look at support for DD’s SEN. Code U isn’t the same code that is used for those who are not there for the whole session and have an unauthorised absence for it.

If DD was to be absent for the session, it should be coded as I, which is an authorised absence.

See the working together to improve school attendance government guidance. It explains what codes are used when and the relevant legislation behind that.

This isn’t correct.

DfE guidelines themselves are clear that if a child turns up late, but before the register closes, they should be marked as Code L- late. If they turn up late, after the register closes, they should be marked U- unauthorised absence for morning session.

EBSA should be authorised absence as is related to anxiety this website has good info and a link you can use as a template to write to your school about it- https://www.southamptonsendiass.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/SO-How-school-should-record-absences-School-AnxietyEBSA.pdf

if you google DFE ebsa authorised absence quite a lot of info comes up.

@SimpleDayss if you report absences they are marked as authorised but will of course affect her overall attendance rate.

That link is about absences though. Not lates. They are coded differently. Absences should be coded as I, but not lates. See the government's working together to improve attendance guidance which explains what each code should be used for.