The leaflet sent out to parents also warns them about fines
for unauthorised absences, including holidays during term time, and says children should attend school if they have a cold, headache or minor illness.
Under the current regulations, schools in England no longer have the latitude to approve term - time holidays apart from in «exceptional cases», which has subsequently led to a surge in parents being fined and prosecuted
for unauthorised absences.
The move would would ultimately end the current policy which has seen a significant rise in the number of parents being fined
for unauthorised absences.
Parents can face fines of # 60 per child,
for unauthorised absences, which rises to # 120 if unpaid after three weeks.
However, a Renfrewshire Council spokesman argued that: «The combined figures for truancy and unexplained absence reflect a wide variety of reasons
for unauthorised absence from school for part or all of the school day.
Local authority data on penalty notices, parenting orders and parenting contracts (
for unauthorised absence).
Not exact matches
Statistics released by the Department
for Education also show that the rate of
unauthorised holiday
absences is also increasing.
A spokeswoman
for Derbyshire County Council said: «The council has approved new interim arrangements following the Isle of Wight High Court ruling on
unauthorised pupil
absences.
The number of fines issued to parents
for unauthorised pupil
absence has fallen by 5.4 per cent.
«It essentially reflects an increased level of enforcement activity being requested by schools in response to parents removing their children from school in term time
for an
unauthorised leave of
absence,» he said.
The local education authority may decide that parents could be liable
for a fixed penalty notice of # 60 if, due to
unauthorised absences, their child's attendance falls below 90 % and also that parents may be liable
for fast track prosecution (involving further fines or a custodial sentence of up to three months) if, due to
unauthorised absences, their child's attendance is consistently below 90 %.
In those circumstances, such as poor performance, perhaps being late
for work on several occasions or
unauthorised absence, the employee should be entitled firstly to a written warning, thereafter a period of time to improve performance and / or behaviour before a second written warning and then perhaps dismissal if there is a further repeat provided.