Practical Law Public Sector addresses the questions that schools may ask local authorities regarding day-to-day school management and sets out the legal issues to consider when responding:
This FAQ examines what a local education authority can do where the reasons for a pupil’s absence are unclear. For all our school hotline queries, please see Practice note, Schools hotline FAQs.
Q: Ollie has been absent from school for a while, but the reasons for this are unclear. What can the local authority do?
A: The LA should firstly check with the school and/or Ollie what the reasons for his absence are and whether it was or should have been authorised. The DfE and Ofsted permit genuine absences due to long-term health problems (see DfE: Reducing absence – ensuring schools intervene earlier: pupils with long-term sickness (July 2011)).
However, if there are no good reasons for Ollie’s long-term absence, then the LA may choose to exercise one or more of its legal powers to address poor attendance at school: see What can a local education authority do in a case of persistent unauthorised absence or poor behaviour at school?.