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<p>Since the report by Charlie Taylor on improving school attendance, the Government's
focus has been on reducing absence overall and encouraging schools to address patterns
of poor attendance early.</p><p> </p><p>To help schools do this, the Department for
Education reduced the threshold at which pupils were classified as persistent absent,
from 20% to 15% of sessions missed. In 2012, we increased the level of the school
attendance penalty fines, from £50 and £100 to £60 and £120 respectively, and in 2013
reduced the overall timescales for paying fines from 42 to 28 days. The second most
common reason for absence is family holiday, so we tightened the law in September
2013 so that headteachers could only grant requests for leave during term time in
exceptional circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>Our reforms are working. In 2012/13, 300,895
pupils were persistently absent, down from 433,130 in 2009/10 - a fall of almost a
third. 130,000 fewer pupils were missing 15% of school in 2012/13 compared to 2010/11.
Overall absence rates are down from 6.3% of possible sessions missed in 2008/09 to
5.2% in 2012/13.</p><p> </p>
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