School absence fines: when they apply and what happens next
There is no number of days a child is allowed to miss. What English law counts is unauthorised absence — days the school has not agreed to — and since August 2024 there has been one national point at which a school must consider a fine: 10 unauthorised sessions within 10 school weeks. This page explains that framework, what a penalty notice costs, when a case goes to court, and how Wales, Scotland and Ireland handle the same question.
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What parents should know about absence and fines
Authorised or unauthorised is what counts
Illness and leave the school has agreed to are authorised absence. Everything else — a holiday without permission, a day off without a reason — is unauthorised, and only unauthorised absence counts towards a fine.
One national threshold in England
10 sessions of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school weeks. It can be one week of holiday or late arrivals spread over several weeks; once it is reached, the school must consider a penalty notice case by case.
A fine is a choice, not a reflex
The school first asks whether support is the better answer. Where it is, support continues or a Notice to Improve comes first. For a holiday in term time, the guidance says support is usually not what is needed.
Two notices, then court
Each parent can receive at most two penalty notices for the same child within three years. After that the local authority takes other action — which often means considering prosecution.
How schools respond to unauthorised absence
The order is much the same across schools in England; what differs is how quickly each step comes. These are the stages the national guidance describes.
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1
Talk and understand
The school contacts you, listens to what is keeping your child away and agrees a plan. Many councils have attendance teams that can help.
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2
Formal support
If voluntary help does not work, the school and council can formalise it, for example in an attendance contract or an Education Supervision Order.
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3
Notice to Improve or penalty notice
Where support is not appropriate or has not worked, a Notice to Improve or a penalty notice follows: £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
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4
Prosecution
If nothing else works, the council can prosecute. Failing to secure regular attendance can mean a fine of up to £1,000; knowingly failing to act, up to £2,500, a community order or up to three months in prison.
Attendance records: digital vs. the paper register
Absence and fines in detail
The national framework in England
Since August 2024, the Department for Education's statutory guidance Working together to improve school attendance, updated in July 2026, sets one national threshold: every state-funded school must consider a penalty notice when a pupil reaches 10 sessions of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school weeks. The sessions can be consecutive or scattered, can combine holiday and late arrival after the register has closed, and can run across terms and school years. Schools may not have a blanket policy either way — issuing every time or never — and are expected to ask first whether support is the better answer. The first penalty notice is £160 if paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days; a second for the same parent and child within three years is a flat £160; a third cannot be issued in that period. Separately, the guidance describes pupils who miss 10 per cent or more of school as persistently absent, and those who miss 50 per cent or more as severely absent — both call for more targeted support rather than reaching straight for sanctions.
When a case goes to court
The decision to prosecute belongs to the local authority. Under section 444 of the Education Act 1996 there are two offences: failing to secure a child's regular attendance, with a fine of up to £1,000, and knowing that a child is not attending regularly and failing to make sure they do, with a fine of up to £2,500, a community order or up to three months in prison. A court can also make a Parenting Order, which requires parenting classes. Separately, the council can use a School Attendance Order where it thinks a child is not receiving an education — parents then have 15 days to register the child at the named school or show that they are educating them at home.
Wales, Scotland and Ireland
Wales uses penalty notices too, at different amounts: £60 if paid within 28 days, rising to £120 within 42 days; if it is not paid, the local authority must prosecute or withdraw the notice, and each authority sets its own threshold in a local code of conduct. Scotland's national guidance (Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1, 2019) works through how absence is categorised — a family holiday in term time is unauthorised unless a parent's job rules out the school holidays — and through how schools respond to patterns of absence; ask your council how it enforces attendance. In Ireland the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 applies: schools report pupils who miss 20 days or more to Tusla, and the Act's offences follow a school attendance notice rather than a penalty notice. The Ireland page covers that in full.
When a school may ask for a doctor's note, and why a note from you is normally enough, is covered in School sick note rules.
If you know about a date in advance, the question is leave rather than absence — see Term-time holiday rules.
For families in Ireland, the 20-day report to Tusla and the school attendance notice are explained in School absence rules in Ireland.
How schools keep excused and unexcused days, late arrivals and the absence rate per pupil in view is shown in Manage school absences.
See absence early, not at report time
England's guidance asks schools to spot patterns early and to talk before they sanction. SchuleVernetzt shows excused and unexcused days, late arrivals and the absence rate for each pupil, sortable and for any period. It does not raise an automatic alert at a set number of sessions: when a school acts is decided by its rules and its judgement, not by the software.
Frequently asked questions about school absence fines
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