Any education welfare officers out there ?

[loumum3]

If so, please could you answer me this question...At what stage does your LA threaten parents with fines/legal proceedings when a child has been absent from school due to illness ?

Thanks

Jolene - you are correct you do have to ask for permission for your child to be off. It is the head who has the authority to determine whether illnesses are authorised or unauthorised, not you.

Althouth I though children had to miss 63 half days before they were referred to an EWO.

I've just had a quick read round here
www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/attendance/laduties/

and it doesn't state anywhere how much time children can have off for reasonable absence before school's take coercive measures. It appears it is left to common sense, which in the case of your school and loumums, seems to have been thrown out of the window.

I'd be tempted to write to the Governing Body to ask for a copy of their absence policy.

Jolene - I would contact your local MP and say what you've said here. School are being totally unreasonable, and to be fair I have never heard of schools doing this before with such a low unattendance level. But fight like with like and get formal yourself about the whole thing and go to your MP.

Jolene

I would call the school office and ask who you need to speak to about attendance, then fix a meeting. Whilst they have been really heavy handed, there is probably some background unrelated to you that is causing them to be like this. For example, some schools have been marked down by OFSTED for poor attendance stats - if they have had this then the approach they are taking may be the schools reaction (albeit an overreaction). So a friendly chat explaining that you want to resolve things would be my first choice. A good relationship with the school is important for both you and your DD, so that you can approach them easily in the event of future issues where you may need their help.

A year later, but my son has been off a lot this school year and I haven't received any letters and no one has called. He was off for whip lash after car crash, off more back problems since then, migraine, flu etc and in total about 20 days, which i know is really bad and apparently only 75% attendance, after reading all these threads it is a bit worrying and I don't know why i haven't received any letters. My DS2 is another matter, but his on a different thread.

I had a letter from an EWO when my daughter's attendance was at 92.5%, saying that they informed parents when it went below 95%. I think they were just being overzealous though because I'd also had a letter from them about her lateness, so they'd then pulled all her attendance stats. The school records weren't very accurate though, with several mistakes (e.g. she was marked as late when she was on a school trip, and as ill when she was at a funeral). It was a really snarky letter, full of nasty implications, and we had great fun writing an equally snarky one back, pointing out all the mistakes in the records.

I have just found out that Academies don't have to report any absentism to the Education Authority and that is probably why I haven't received anything yet. I still might, but I spoke to a lady at Parent Link and this is what she told me.

Can an EWO visit your home without an appointment. Ours has visited twice over the Christmas/New year when our teen was off school. His attendance is really bad but he is unwell and has autism

rainsuncloud
Not sure if that is correct. I still get requests from SLT (an academy school) to explain my 6th former's absences as they need to justify everything to the DofE. On the positive side, once medical evidence has been provided they leave us alone. I do have to provide regular letters though which our surgery has started to charge for.