When do fines for absence come into effect

[houseneedsatidy]

If the school refuses to authorise an absence (an in-term trip of five days for kids to be bridesmaids at family wedding)

• can I be fined?
• under what circumstances can I be fined (is it reported to the LEA and then they fine me)?
• if the school does not push it with the LEA will I not be fined?
• how much can I be fined?

THis is not a question about the wrongs or rights of taking kids out in term time (although i do not feel guilty as my kids are in year one and year two and are both working at levels expected of the year above) this is a question about how much I might have to pay and how likely it is I will have to pay. Has the law tightened up in the last year or so? And if so have their been any test cases?

wedding is in west africa by the way, if you are wondering why I can't nip down in less time.

Where in the uk are you?

I applied yesterday to take our 2dc out of school for 5 days and had the form back to say that the leave has been authorised.

We're in Wales.

Have you applied for the time off from HT? That would be the first thing to do as you won't get one answer on here - all schools differ. I would more or less guarantee it will be hugely frowned on if it's anywhere near SATS for the Y2 child, regardless of how far ahead she is, our school are pretty good, but that would be refused, for sure.

I'm sure someone will be along with a link to the relevant government guildelines soon - I'm not good at links! The first port of call would definatley be simply asking school, nicely!

What's their normal attendance like? If it's normally perfect then yoi're much more likely to get away with it.
What's the school's position wrt attendance targets? If they're regularly missing targets and in danger of being bumped down a grade by OFSTED then you're less likely to get authorised. What's their rhetoric like? Do they come over very very heavy on the subject in every other news letter?

Basically other parents at your DCs school are the people most likely to know the score because it varies so much.

Oh and FWIW even though I'm normally very tough on attendance I'd take my DCs out in your situation too.

You are unlikely to be fined for 5 days unless your child has other unauthorised absences.

Usually it is the LA who fine you and you would normally receive a penalty warning notice advising you that if your child has absences over a stated period of time without good reason then you will be fined. Currently it is £50 per parent per child. Some schools use a fast-track system and will issue the penalty warning immediately to cover the period you intend to be away.

Schools generally do not have a choice over whether or not to inform the LA. Data is shared with them and any children with attendance below 80 or 85% attendance will be of particular interest. Schools can make a case for children who are absent under exceptional circumstances but usually a wedding wouldn't fit the bill, sorry.

The law has allowed LAs to fine for many years now.

HTH

Sorry. I wasn't clear. I did ask nicely, but there is a new head and he refused it on principle (very strict on absences, despite my children having an excellent attendance record). The trip would be just after half term so lots of time for SATS. I'm going to go anyway, just interested in how much this might cost me.

Do heads still have the right to authorise up to ten days a year? And can any unauthorised absence attract a fine, even if the child is still under a total of ten days in the year?

Cross posts. Thanks very much for the information.

I'd read a lot earlier in the year about Gove coming down on attendance and being stricter about fines etc. I was wondering whether this would show itself in the new academic year.

We took dd to Australia last year, thevhead would not authorize it despite her having had no other time off. It went down as unauthorized and we heard nothing more about it. I think they usually only fine people who have poor attendance, most schools have more to worry about than a child that has just 5 days off in a whole year, especially when they are doing ok at school.

Heads can authorise up to 10 days in exceptional circumstances; the problem is that one head's exceptional circumstances is different to the next.

The offence is failing to attend 'regularly' so most LAs wouldn't fine for a period of just 5 days.

I think the picture is very inconsistent across the country. Some LEAs fine, some don't.

As a teacher, I don't agree with taking children out of school for holidays. But that's mainly because I am stuck with school holidays and have no choice . And before anyone says it, I know I get all the holidays off....

As a parent of a child with excellent attendance who wanted one week off for a family wedding, I would be really p*ssed off if the absence was unauthorised.

If the LEA threatened to fine, I would ask them which charity they would want the money paid to.