Father wins court battle over term time holiday fine
A father has won his court battle over a school fine for taking his daughter on a Disney World holiday during term time.
Jon Platt, 44, had been fined £120 for unauthorised absence under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996 which states that parents are liable if their child fails to ‘attend regularly at school’.
But he spent £1000 on legal fees, arguing that his seven year old daughter was only away from school for eight days and as she was still ‘attending regularly’, he had not broken the law.
This week, Isle of Wight magistrates’ court agreed, ruling there was no case to answer after the prosecution had delivered its evidence.
Mr Platt told the Daily Mail: "If I thought my kids’ education would be affected I wouldn’t have taken them. I knew exactly what the consequences were when I requested the time off and the school said it would be unauthorised."
In 2013 the Government told headteachers that they could no longer authorise parents taking children out of school during term time for holidays.
This month, Parliament is to debate a petition calling for an allowance of two weeks’ leave in term time which was signed by more than 100,000 people.
Diane
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