One in 10 children are still absent from schools two years after the pandemic began and schools are trying to find ways to get them back. Some headteachers want fines for non-attendance re-imposed, but many parents are against it.
We asked whether parents not sending their children to school should be fined and most who responded on Facebook said no. There were a multitude of reasons why they were against penalties, showing just what a thorny issue this is and how hard school absence is to tackle.
The Welsh Government has today announced £4.9m of funding to increase the number of Family Engagement Officers employed by schools to tackle inequality and absence issues. It is hoped they will tackle the reasons so many children are still off school.
