Sick child, 5 days off - fine?

[katem98]

Hi all,

My DS is 5, in yr1. Last week on Thursday morning he was very pale and lethargic - decided to keep him home and he went back in on Friday. Sunday night he was up and vomited 8 times during the night followed by more vomiting and diarrhoea on the Monday (obviously kept him off). He was last sick yesterday around 08:30am. He's definitely perked up but still complaining of abdominal cramps and crying this evening. Slight temp but nothing major and fell asleep tonight at 5:30pm.

If he stayed off tomorrow and potentially Friday, would this result in a fine? They've approved his absence and marked it (i) which I'm assuming is authorised?

Obviously not ideal that he's missing school but he's still so little and hate the thought of him being uncomfortable stuck in a classroom when he just wants to be kept quiet at home.

Thanks for any knowledge!

You don’t get fined if they are sick, only for unauthorised absences over 5 days. Please keep him home! Hope he feels better soon

He shouldn’t be back less than 48 hours after last bout of sickness or diarrhoea so just say he still has loose stools tomorrow.

Thank you both!! They make you feel so guilty for keeping them home I really hate it 😬

Poor lamb. Please don't panic, illness is authorised absence. You would only be fined if you took him out on holiday for that length of time.

It sounds like an awful, he definitely needs to rest up. If he's had it this bad, chances are it is rife in his class anyway. School will understand.

@BoleynMemories13 Thank you. I agree - rest is needed! I'll be keeping him home.

One of his classmates had something similar a few weeks back and a school staff member showed up at their front door to check whether he was actually ill or not (attendance other than that instance of illness was fine). The school he's in is very hot on attendance and not very understanding!

@katem98 That home visit would have been a safeguarding check, not an absence check! We have to be very on the ball these days with safeguarding, particularly with certain families.

@Covidwoes Oh that's interesting, I'd never even thought about it from a safeguarding perspective!

Sounds like maybe they weren't keeping the school updated. Some people ring in sick once and don't realise they should do it daily. The school have a duty of care to check on the child's welfare if they're absent for several days with no update and the family cannot be contacted any other way.

@BoleynMemories13 Makes complete sense, I'd never really thought about that. We inform the school via an app and I have been doing this daily. I thought people would just naturally inform the school daily!