The School Absence Crisis: What the Data Shows and What Parents Should Do
School absence in England has reached its highest recorded level. In 2023/24, 22.3% of all pupils were persistently absent — missing more than 10% of possible sessions — compared to 10.9% in 2018/19. One in five children is routinely missing significant amounts of schooling. Three years after COVID restrictions ended, absence rates remain nearly double their pre-pandemic levels. Here is what the data shows, why it matters, and what parents can do.
What the Data Shows
The DfE's attendance statistics are stark. In autumn 2024, overall absence stood at 7.2% across all state-funded schools. The pupils most likely to be persistently absent are those with SEND (40.2% persistently absent), those eligible for free school meals (32.8%), and those in secondary school (26.4%). The conditions that produce persistent absence are correlated with those that already produce educational disadvantage — making absence one of the significant drivers of the widening attainment gap.
The most commonly recorded reasons are illness, unauthorised absence, and "other" — a category that has grown significantly and which includes a substantial proportion of anxiety-related absence and parental requests for term-time holidays.
Why Absence Has Not Recovered
COVID changed the norms around attendance in a way that has not fully reversed. The experience of school closure, followed by NHS advice to keep ill children home, followed by a cultural shift in parental attitudes, has produced a new baseline in which missing school feels more acceptable than it did in 2019. But the underlying drivers are also real: increased rates of childhood anxiety and mental health difficulties; more children with unmet SEND; the cost-of-living crisis affecting some families; and a post-pandemic shift in the family-school relationship that will take sustained work to repair.
The Academic Cost of Absence
Research by the Education Policy Institute (2023) found that pupils who were persistently absent in Years 10 and 11 achieved on average 1.5 grade points lower per GCSE subject than comparable pupils who attended regularly. The effect is cumulative: absence in primary reduces readiness for secondary; absence in KS3 reduces GCSE preparation; absence in Year 10 and 11 directly reduces grades. There is no such thing as absence that does not matter academically.
What Parents Should Do
If your child is regularly missing school, the first task is honest diagnosis: is this illness, anxiety, avoidance, a school problem, or a normalised assumption that occasional absence is acceptable? Our article on school refusal addresses the anxiety-driven case in depth. Our article on mental health support in schools covers what provision your child is entitled to. For parents whose children have SEND that contributes to absence, our article on the EHCP process is relevant.
What Parents Can Do About School Absence
- Treat absence as the exception, not the default: build a household culture where school is non-negotiable except for genuine illness.
- Contact the school on the first day of absence — unexplained absence creates formal records that complicate later situations.
- If illness is recurrent, consult your GP — a pattern of minor illness coinciding with school may be anxiety-related.
- Avoid authorising term-time holidays: fines are increasingly enforced and the legal position is clear.
- If your child is anxious about school, seek support early — our school refusal article covers what works.
- Keep in contact with what is being taught during absence so your child can catch up more effectively.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I be fined for my child's absence?
Yes. Fixed penalty notices are issued for unauthorised absence, including term-time holidays taken without school permission. From 2024, the fine for a first offence is £80 per parent per child (£160 if not paid within 21 days). Repeated fines can result in prosecution. Schools are increasingly active in issuing these.
My child is ill frequently. At what point should I worry?
Persistent absence is defined as missing 10% or more of possible sessions (roughly 19 days per year). If your child reaches this level, the school is required to follow up. If illness is genuinely recurring, a GP visit to investigate the pattern is appropriate.
The school keeps marking my child's absence as unauthorised when they were genuinely ill. What can I do?
Absence due to illness should be marked as authorised when a parent has notified the school. Request in writing that the school correct their records. Persistent disagreement about attendance records can be raised as a formal complaint.
Is online school a legitimate alternative to reduce absence?
Not as a replacement for mainstream school attendance unless a medical condition makes attendance impossible. Online provision may be appropriate as a temporary bridge during reintegration, but it cannot substitute for the social, developmental and academic experience of full-time schooling.
References
- Department for Education (2024) Pupil Attendance in Schools: Academic Year 2023/24. London: HMSO.
- Education Policy Institute (2023) Absence and Attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4. London: EPI.
- Children's Commissioner (2024) Best Interests in School: Tackling Persistent Absence. London: Office of the Children's Commissioner.
- NHS England (2024) Children and Young People's Mental Health Services: Annual Report. London: NHS England.