 |
answer text |
<p>The Department trusts schools to record, authorise and monitor attendance effectively
and to work constructively with individual parents and pupils to improve school attendance
where it is a problem.</p><p> </p><p>The law places a duty on parents to ensure that
their child attends school regularly where the child is of compulsory school age and
registered at a school. The Education Act 1996 also sets out the situations in which
an absent pupil will not be taken to have failed to attend school regularly, such
as where the child was prevented from attending due to illness.</p><p> </p><p>The
Department recognises that mental health problems can have an impact on a pupil’s
attendance and the guidance to schools is clear that they should authorise pupil absence
due to illness (both physical and mental health related) unless they have genuine
cause for concern about the veracity of an illness. If the authenticity of illness
is in doubt, schools can request parents to provide medical evidence to support absence,
but this is not mandatory.</p><p> </p><p>The statutory Special Educational Need and
Disability Code of Practice sets out the approach that schools should take when staff
notice an emerging issue, including mental health issues. Where more serious problems
occur, schools should expect pupils and families to be able to access support from
specialist services.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities must arrange suitable full-time
education for children of compulsory school age who, because of illness, would not
receive suitable education without such provision. The Department’s statutory guidance
states that local authorities should provide such education as soon as it is clear
that a child will be away from school for 15 days or more, whether consecutive or
cumulative.</p>
|
|
