sick leave rules

[clangermum]

ds is at a special school and currently having medication changed (after becoming unresponsive to the previous one), which means being much less able to concentrate. School had been persistently giving informal exclusions for this reason. I suggested staying off for a few days on medical grounds (sick leave effectively) because it's very bad to have this keep happening. Rather than accept this is sick leave, school are saying it constitutes being educated off the premises, so work has to be done and shown.

I'm getting written evidence of the medication changes, but my question is - how long can a child be kept off school before a sick note is required? And why is it ok for them to say my child can't cope in school, but not for me to say this?

anyone?

it's not ok for them to say he can't cope in school, informal exclusions are illegal! They are not allowed to do that and you can refuse to take him home unless they make it a formal exclusion. There's some info here on exclusion and some further info here about your child being off sick. It says that schools should not be routinely asking for sick notes unless long term or repeated illness. I don't think being off sick counts as being educated off premises, I think if he's off on long term sick then the lea would be obliged to provide some level of home tutoring and that would probably covered by the off premises bit but it depends on how long your ds will be off for.

Thanks Ninja - that's really helpful!