‘I paid a term-time holiday because my son cannot face the crowd’

“My son does not do well in a large crowd,” Sara says, who fined £ 320 to take her two children on holiday with her partner during school time.

Sara’s 10 -year -old son, Tyler, has autism and ADHD, and struggles to cope with large groups of tourists during school holidays.

This means that Sara has to choose between the popular destinations, or to go to the cool period during the school’s tenure.

Schools and councils say that children should not be out of class during the period, but Sara says that the holiday crowd for the Tyler will be “too much”.

In July 2024, Lessestershire’s family went on leave for Turkey during a summer tenure, which meant that the children had missed the school for six days.

Sara says that she has also considered her children to educate her children, saying: “I think I do not have full responsibility for them, the fact that I did not take them out of school for a holiday. Can.”

The Leesterushair County Council says that it “advises the parents to reduce the effect that may be on a child’s education during school days”.

However, Sara says that her family’s visit to Türkiye was educational.

“Children got to know about Turkish culture, Turkish food, Turkish currency,” she says. “But this means nothing, because I am ignoring my children because I took them out of school.”

For many families, cost benefits also play a big role in the decision to take holidays during the period, with visits Often over thousands of costs during school holidays,

A record 356,181 school holiday fine was issued in England during the 2022-2023 academic year, when the government began recording the data in 2016-17.

Due to being published on Thursday, the figures will tell us whether the trend continues.

In August 2024, the Department of Education (DFE) introduced a new national structure to bring more councils to each other. However, it says that it is the responsibility of the local authority to decide to issue a fine to the parents.

The government says, in most cases, school and local officials will try to help help to help improve the presence of a child-but if it is ineffective or the absence is for an unauthorized time-to-time holiday, then Parents may face fines.

According to DFE Guidelines released in August 2024:

• Schools should consider penalty if a child remembers unauthorized for five or more days.
• Fine Rose from £ 60 to £ 80 If paid within 21 days, or £ 160 if paid within 28 days
• If the parents get a second fine for the same child in three years, then its price is immediately £ 160.
• For the third unauthorized absence, other action such as prosecution is considered. The presence of a court may result in a fine of up to £ 2,500.

DFE says that money goes to the local authority from the fine.

Doncaster Council issued the highest fine on 1,000 students per local authority in England with 149 in 2022-2023.

“This is a big issue”, “says Principal Katy Taylor-Clarke at Laurel Academy in Mexboro near Doncaster.

Two attendance officers have been appointed in the school who spend all day and visit the children’s parents who do not show in the morning.

To help parents find cheap holidays, Doncaster schools have run their Easter holidays earlier this year earlier this year.

“Some disappointment is with those travel companies that increase prices,” says Miss Taylor-Clarke.

“But finally, children need to stay in school.

“As a general rule of thumb, we will not authorize a term-time holiday. We have to be consistent, because it is not appropriate if we fix some parents and not others.”

Paul Whitman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, says the fine is a “raw tool, and does not address more complex underlying causes of absence”.

To improve appearance, they say that children with special educational needs require more support, as well as more investment in community services, mental health assistance and social care.

School leaders are also in a difficult situation, they say, because there are no national guidelines on “extraordinary circumstances” in which school can give time to students.

Education Secretary Bridget Philipson said, “We need a national effort to deal with the absence of school”, adding a fine is an important place in our system, so everyone is held accountable to ensure that everyone is accountable to ensure in school. goes “.

“When children unnecessarily remember the school, all the children are suffering, because the attention of the teachers is taken to help them catch them, and we will not apologize for sure that every child in the school To reach high and growing standards so that they can achieve and thrive, “he said.

Additional Reporting by Miguel Roca-Terry and Jonathan Fagh