Please help - 17 year old not attending school (in Scotland) - what's the legal position?

[liz70]

DD2, 17 is supposed to be in her final year of school but as the thread title suggests, her attendance is poor, currently standing at 80.5%. I am frankly sick of receiving emails, letters and texts about a near adult (18 in July) and now I've received a particularly officious letter threatening "further action".

Frustrated though I am, I'm hardly in a position to drag a 17 year old to school in the morning, and besides, I have DD3, 8, to take to school at that time, which I do without fail (zero lateness and only occasional absences, always due to illness).

I'm just so bloody sick of it all.

TIA for any advice.

I have heard via work channels that there have been no actual prosecutions in our area, but I’m not in Scotland.

What’s her reason for not going to school? Some can be more supportive if you are taking reasonable action to support her attending (ie therapy if she has school based anxiety)

By the time they sort out legal action, she'll be 18 and it will be laughed out of court. Or she'll be fined for not taking herself to school

They will prob just tell her to not come back.
If a 17 year old is refusing to go to school then they either need to get a job or go to college.

Would she switch to a college course she is more motivated to do? Or an apprenticeship - I have seen lots of girls find leaving school a relief and get on better. But it rather depends on her circumstances and attitude. Is she at risk of getting chicked out of school? Our local sixth forms won’t hesitate to do this.

I thought the law for 18 only applied to England and Wales, but I'm not 100% about that.

in Scotland legally she can leave school at 16. But if she is still in school she should be attending everyday, if she doesn’t she might as well leave. Why is she not going and what does she want to do instead?

From gov site -

You can leave school at aged 16 in Scotland.
When you leave school you can:
go to university
go to college
get a job or work experience
get a modern apprentice
start a business
join the armed forces
have a gap year - taking time out, normally a year, between school and whatever you want to do next

She can just leave. My dd will be 18 in June and left school last year.