£60 fine for illness- unauthorised - advice please

[Luckz66]

Hi all, desperately seeking advice please!
On 18/3/19 I kept my son off school for the week as he had a terrible sore throat and cough.
I called in the school everyday and gave them updates on him.
However, today I received a letter from the education authority stating I am being fined £60 for that week as the absences are unauthorised.
The letter didn’t even go to the correct address as the school somehow has my address wrong on the system and the guy from down the road has brought it up to myself.
Also, I have had one for my sons dad (we are not together) sent to the wrong address also.
I know that if he gets fined too will cause issues as he’s going to go mad at me for keeping him off school for what looks unauthorised but I only did it because he was ill.
Totally confused on what to do now!
Help please!

FYI - I know I'm going to be questioned here about why I allowed for him to be put on the BC but we were together then. He ran off with a Nurse when she was just turned 1 and has t been in touch since.

Do you not think a school should question the absence at the time, rather than marking it as unauthorised (without informing the op) and weeks later sending out a fine

Yes.

I can't comment on the delay sending out a fine. That may be down to the LA's processes and is not necessarily unreasonable. But I agree the school should question the absence immediately if they wish to do so.

This is an administrative error and you should not be fined. The quickest way to make it disappear is to suck up to your GP to write a quick note. If you are being bureaucratically bullied they are often quite helpful.

Unless there's more to this than you're letting on op, they can't fine you.

It's very unusual for a child to have had a full week off on two occasions though.

I would fight it. The first 7 days of an illness are self certified and people attending GPs for ‘sick notes’ for illnesses that can be managed at home or with help from the pharmacy are a drain on resources. Given the 48hr rule regarding D&V (probably in the councils guidance for schools) 5 days off school is not unreasonable.

The second abscence the OP hasn’t given much detail of but regardless of the posters shouting for proof I disagree that she is obliged to provide it.

If the school did not believe it at the time they should have told her so when she phoned in. You can’t have a parent phoning in saying ‘John’s not well’ and the school saying ‘that is a shame I hope he is better soon’ and then hear no more about it until a fine lands on your door.

Also return the dads letter as sent to the wrong address. Let them try and track him down and I wouldn’t be helping with that.

bigearrings yes they are. If a child is absent from school for more than a couple of days they are supposed to facilitate an easy reintegration into school. This includes but is not limited to providing work for the pupil to do at home ( many schools have sections in their website with suggestions and others will send home specific work). I know this as a parent of a sick child who had work sent home and sometimes had a home tutor when off for several weeks. Also as a teacher who had to prepare work suitable for a sick pupil to do at home. Sometimes this is limited to chronically sick pupils, those who've had an operation but can also be those who have a week off for a virus. Often it's the getting into school that is too much for a sick child not the education element. I'm not accusing the OP just suggesting another route for her to take with school

And btw I speak as someone who was threatened with court and a £1000 fine while my child was in hospital on an IV and hooked up to a heart monitor because the school didn't believe she was too ill for school.

It is getting ridiculous.
Children get sickness bugs, contagious things like chicken pox. They get things that take time to get over like tonsillitis, glandular fever. My dc had all those things and between them had broken limbs and other injuries. This is just life.
Fining parents because their child is ill inappropriate.

Make an appointment with the head, it's down to their own discretion whether it's authorised or not. You definitely shouldn't be fined for this

People who are accusing Ph47, do they actually have a child with chronic illness who need to take days off school regularly?
He is an asset to this board, who gives us specialist opinions. Whatever he says is the truth, and up to date. And to the people like me, who do actually have a child with chronic illness who attends hospital regularly, what he says is what I need to hear, to know the truth about school attendance system and how we can work with school to make our child school life better.

Can you prove that your dp was working during that time. Further evidence that you weren't on a family holiday.

@irvineoneohone

I'm not sure who you're referring to but I haven't heard anyone accuse @Ph47 of anything. They have pointed out that the school's position is clearly ridiculous and that the OP is being bullied.

Holesin, no argument there about op, but what's the point of grilling ph, who is merely stating the facts?

As ragmayo says it's up to the head to decide if the reason given for absence is acceptable so you really need to make an appointment. Once a fine has been issued there's no right of appeal and it can only be cancelled if the LA believe there has been a mistake.

Sooveethemill children are referred to the home hospital service after 15 consecutive days of absence.

People who are accusing Ph47, do they actually have a child with chronic illness who need to take days off school regularly?

I don't think I have accused prh47bridge of anything, but I have queried some of the things they have said in relation to the op.

Yes I do have a child who has a lot of absences due to their condition.

This is from another thread on MN and may be useful to you:

British Medical Association Guidance on Examinations and Sickness Certificates

Please see the extract below from the BMA. The practice will not provide notes for children who have missed exams due to illness.

“It should be noted that GPs are not required to provide sick notes for school children. When children are absent from school owing to illness, schools may request a letter from a parent or guardian, and this is no different during an exam period. However, children who have missed exams due to illness are frequently told by schools that a note from a doctor is require; but there is no requirement for this to be provided by a GP. Aside from the fact that parents/guardians are responsible for excusing their children from school, GPs cannot provide retrospective sickness certification. When a child suffers from a long term condition, any certification will be provided by the responsible specialist.“

Tbh I'd be resigning from this point as Governer and telling the HT to find another person to do that thankless task.

At this point I'd stop doing anything practical to support a school where the HT has supported this action against you. They could take a hike as far as I was concerned.

I know they are under pressure but targeting parents who generally support their child and the school is shocking and needs to backfire.

Dreadful, I am angry for you.

OP - you are a teacher at a different school. You don't say if you needed to take time off for his sickness or if you arranged alternative cover. And on both occasions? If you remained in work, that is not proof of sickness as such, but proof you were not off on holiday somewhere.

I think you will need to build up tiny pieces of evidence like this, to demonstrate to LEA/magistrate (if it gets that far) that he was sick/not on holiday.

Dd has a chronic illness and her attendance this year is at 67%.

I've never once been asked to provide a doctors note or even any evidence of her illness. They've always taken my word for it. Though to be honest she looks so dreadful I don't think they'd disbelieve me!

I think the OP said she was on maternity leave at the moment.

I actually cant believe the burden of proof is on parents to prove illness. Yet they dont have to state that they dont believe you/might not believe you.
1 surely all parents taking kids out now say it is d&v as what with the 48h 5 days is reasonable
2 there will be parents now videoing their ill kids- at home just in case
3 i would be tempted to send in before the 48h are up as if they cannot sort out when parents are lying why should parents observe something which makes them look worse -increases total days off
4 But i do think it's surprising he needed 5 days for a sore throat and cough. That sounds excessive. Just because gp gave calpol doesnt mean the kid is that ill. Did gp say he needed to stay home?
My dc was ill a lot at nursery so badly they possibly have lasting effects. Possibly just from too many illnesses close together.

Someone i know had it recorded as unauth but it was the school's error , luckily absence had been emailed in.

A lot of schools run a take them in and they give the say so if they can go home thing after they get their mark
Is this true?! Utterly shocking if so. The school is exceeding their remit - it’s not for them to decide if my child is too ill to attend. Not to mention that the last thing a sick child needs is to be forced to walk to school and back!

I actually cant believe the burden of proof is on parents to prove illness. Yet they dont have to state that they dont believe you/might not believe you

The order of events is not clear from the OP's posts. She says she provided evidence but the school say it isn't enough. It is not clear whether this happened before or after the penalty notice was issued but her posts suggest it was before.

If the school thinks a parent may be claiming sickness when there child was not ill they should ask the parent for evidence first and only issue a penalty notice if the parent is unable to provide satisfactory evidence.

In most cases parents are not asked for evidence of illness if the attendance record is good. However, there are a few schools that ask for evidence for any illness. All the schools I am aware of with such a policy make this clear to parents. It isn't something sprung on them unexpectedly after their child has returned to school.

As another poster said up thread, you do not have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that your child was ill. You only have to prove it on the balance of probabilities.

Is this true (schools insisting on parents taking sick children in)

I have not come across any schools that operate this policy so I think saying lots of schools do this is overstating the case. It is not good practice but I can imagine a school that has problems with attendance might do this as a way of manipulating its attendance statistics. I don't think Ofsted would be very happy if they found out a school was behaving like this.