Following up on the earlier post (Bulletin #1) about changes to the law around attendance management, we have produced a ‘guide on a page’ which we hope will be a useful reference. You can access this below, but we are also sending home a paper copy.
The intent here is not to ‘scare’ or be hostile, just to try to help families avoid falling foul of the new rules that have been introduced nationally. We don’t want anyone fined or prosecuted!
The changes were introduced by the outgoing Government back in February of this year, to become law from August, as part of the Attendance Drive programme. From February onwards, school registers have had to be sent daily to the Department for Education, whose systems identify children with low attendance – those below 90% are categorised by the DfE as Persistent Absentees.
The expectation from the Department of Education remains unchanged, that all children, barring those with mitigating serious medical conditions, other exceptional circumstances or special needs, have attendance of at least 96% every year.
Again, to summarise the biggest changes:
- School is expected to notify the local authority whenever a child has misses 10 sessions (5 days) in any 10 week period.
- The Fixed Penalty Notice has increased from £60 to £80 per adult per child
- Within 3 calendar years…
- Any second FPN will be doubled to £160 per adult per child
- There is no 3rd FPN – the local authority will proceed straight to prosecution; a fine of up to £2,500 or up to 3 months imprisonment. The offence has no mitigating circumstances that can be offered in defence other than that the school had actually authorised the absence and the prosecution is erroneous, an administrative error.
- Within 3 calendar years…
- Children arriving after the register has closed (9:15) will be marked as an unauthorised absence