Parents to be fined £80 per child, per day for school absences

28 October 2024

The price of fines for unauthorised school absences have been raised for the first time since their introduction in 2013 in a bid to improve attendance.

Fines have risen from £60 to £80 per child, per day.  This increases to £160 if parents fail to pay within 21 days.

For repeat offenders within a 3-year period, the second fine automatically increases to a minimum of £160 and offences thereafter may result in a parenting order or prosecution.

This comes after almost 400,000 penalty notices were issued to parents in the year 2022/23 for unauthorised school absences in England.

Of the fines issued, a record 350,000 involved children who were absent for unauthorised holidays.

As it stands, the law says that children are only permitted to be absent from school if they are unwell or provide evidence of ‘exceptional circumstances’ in order to receive advanced permission from the school.

Whilst local authorities are currently able to control their own policies on fines for school absences, a new 'national framework' was recently put into place to avoid inconsistencies between councils. The framework outlines scenarios in which a fine must be considered, ie when a child has missed 10 lessons – equating to five full school days – without permission.

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