Families see school as ‘optional’ and fines are not reversing post-Covid trend

Undated file photo of pupils in a classroom. There has been a drop in school engagement and wellbeing since before the Covid-19 pandemic, with higher rates of non-attendance and more school avoidance, a report into the School Complete Programme (SCP) has found. Issue date: Tuesday March 4, 2025. - (PA Wire)

Some families see school as “optional” since the pandemic – and fines for unauthorised absences are “not reversing” the trend, the leader of a headteachers’ union will say.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), will say fining parents who take their children out of school without permission “often deepen tensions” with families.