Expectations of parents
Your responsibilites for your child’s attendance
The meaning of ‘parent’ in relation to a child includes any person who is not a parent but who has parental responsibility for the child or who has care of the child, as set out in section 576 of the Education Act 1996. As a parent, you are legally responsible for making sure your child gets a suitable full-time education, usually from the age of 5 to 16.
For most parents, this will mean making sure your child is in school every day except when:
- Your child is too ill to go to school.
- You have permission for a leave of absence from your child’s school for them not to attend. You should only ask for this in exceptional circumstances only.
- A day that is exclusively set apart for religious observance by the parents’ religious body (not the parents). The DfE define this as ‘a day exclusively set apart for religious observance’ as a day when the pupil’s parents would be expected by their religious body to which they belong to stay away from their employment to mark the occasion.
Whilst some absence is unavoidable, it is important that, if possible, your child is in school every day they can be for their learning, wellbeing and development.
What to do when your child is absent from school
You should contact their school as early as possible on the first day of absence to explain why. If you do not, your child’s school will contact you on the first morning of their absence to find out why your child is not in school. This process will be set out in the school’s attendance policy. The attendance policy should be available on the website of your child's school.
All parents can request a ‘leave of absence’ for their child which gives them permission to be absent from school. However, parents should plan their holidays around school breaks and avoid seeking permission from schools to take their children out of school during term time unless it is unavoidable. Your child’s school has the final say over whether to approve the request as an exceptional circumstance and the school will determine the number of days a pupil can be absent from school.
Children with short-term illness
If your child is ill, read the NHS advice to help you decide whether they can go to school. If they are too ill to attend, you are not breaking the law and will not be penalised. You should let the school know as soon as possible on the first day of absence and schools must record such absences as authorised. If the absence due to illness is ongoing or frequent you should speak to child’s school to see what support can be put in place.
Do I need to provide medical evidence to support my child’s illness related absence?
If your child is too ill to attend school, schools must record these absences as authorised. In the majority of cases medical evidence is not needed, but schools may ask you for evidence where:
- Your child is regularly absent because of illness, to assess how they can help your child by putting the right reasonable adjustments in place.
- In a small number of cases where they have reason to believe your child was not too ill to attend and a conversation cannot resolve the issue.
If you are asked to provide evidence this does not need to be a letter from your doctor or consultant, and doctors will not usually provide such letters. It can, instead, be appointment cards, prescriptions, or notes of previous consultations (including from the NHS App).
A lack of written evidence must not prevent the right support being put in place or the absence being authorised if you can demonstrate your child was, or is, unable to attend, or is awaiting treatment. If you are asked for evidence you cannot provide, a conversation between the school, child and parent should help to resolve the issue.
Dental and medical appointments
To avoid disruption to your child’s attendance, with routine medical and dental appointments, you should try and book them outside of the school day whenever reasonably possible. When this is unavoidable, you should inform the school in advance and collect them as close to the time of the appointment as possible and return them to school for the rest of the school day afterwards.