References for child with attendance below 90% ?

[birdbath2024]

I'm hoping someone can give me some insight on how this works? Our child has a medical condition which brings their attendance down to below 90% mainly through multiple medical appointments. How is this going to affect them in terms of referencing when they leave school? Do schools give the child's attendance as a percentage ? or do employers ask for the amount of days off with illness? do schools just say whether attendance is satisfactory or not and at what percentage is it deemed "unsatisfactory"...?

It depends on the questions asked by the employer.

Employers are not going to be asking for your child’s school attendance.

The school is not going to tell employers what a child’s attendance was, and it’s not a typical question to ask. But the op says the child has a medical condition that did heavily affect their school attendance, and if it’s their first job after leaving school, it’s really not an unreasonable question from an employer if they think the same condition will affect their work performance. While they can’t discriminate and should make allowances, there are some jobs that you will just not be able to do if you’re only going to make it in for roughly 8 days or less out of every 10

Again, no employer is going to ask for a child’s school attendance due to medical concerns full stop. That would be called unlawful discrimination. Whether OP’s child wants to ask their teachers for a reference is completely up to them. No teacher is going to write negatively about a child with no issues other than slightly lower than average attendance due to well documented reasons.

FWIW DD developed a medical condition in sixth form which meant that her attendance dropped to 65% in her final year. It has caused absolutely no bother when it came to applying to university/jobs whatsoever. Teachers were very supportive of her and wrote lovely references when asked. Employers so far have all been very accommodating.

As long as your child is capable of performing to a good standard in the job that they are applying for things will be absolutely fine, OP.

That's what I'm trying to find out. Lot's of schools and colleges stress that questions on attendance are asked in their attendance policies and I'm wondering if anyone has real life experience of what employers do typically ask...

You speak for all employers do you? Of course some of them will. It’s probably less discriminatory than asking a female interviewee whether she plans on starting a family, as they don’t want to risk losing staff and having to pay maternity, but that happens all the time. Unless you can somehow prove that you were definitely going to get the job, and then it got withdrawn directly because of discrimination, then nothings going to happen to them? Not knowing the ops full situation, if her daughter applies for a job directly from school, with clear disabilities/medical issues that may affect her attendance and performance, it’s not a reach to imagine an employer carefully wording something like ‘did you have to have much time off school for medical appointments’? Not knowing her circumstances, she may even need to mention it first if it’s something that requires ongoing hospital treatment which she already knows she’s needs time off for. I’m glad it’s not affected you negatively, and hopefully the ops daughter experiences the same.

What is with the overly defensive replies? I am simply giving our experience on a situation which as the parent of a chronically ill teen I am far better placed to advise on than you who obviously has not been through this. You are just speculating which is not relevant or helpful

Very, very few employers ask schools for this kind of information. If they are going into a Level 2 or Level 3 apprenticeship straight after GCSEs it may be asked as part of referencing but you could have a conversation with school in advance about this. If they intend to go onto Further or Higher Education and then employment, their school attendance is absolutely not relevant.

Thanks for this answer, can I ask if you work in HR/ education or how you know this? I will speak to the school in advance. I have personally been asked in a job interview about how many days I have had off sick in my last job (which I'm sure wasn't legally allowed at the time!) and I also have friends who are employers who have expressed concerns re hiring people with health or medical conditions. I know my child isn't legally obliged to disclose a condition to a future employer but if they ask about attendance during referencing it will come up anyway and this is what I'm concerned about. I hope that by the time they leave school they won't need so many medical appointments but ofcourse I can't predict what the situation will be...

@birdbath2024 I work in education, at a university fully now but my last role included working in a school supporting young people onto their next step - so jobs, courses, apprenticeships, university, with a specific focus on underrepresented students, including those with disabilities or health conditions!

The young people I worked with who did have health conditions and went into apprenticeships actually tended to do better in workplace than school because of things like flexibility working, annual leave etc