Parents are budgeting for school fines
An investigation by the BBC has found parents are now actively budgeting for the cost of school fines when planning their term-time family holiday.
It found parents across England and Wales have been fined about £24 million for failing to send their children to school during the past three years, but some councils are issuing penalties at a rate five times higher than the average.
A total of 155 local authorities in England and Wales issued around 400,000 penalties over three years, although 19 did not supply data. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not issue fines.
On average, the BBC found that in 2016/17 councils issued 12 penalties per 1,000 children either for truancy or for parents taking children away on holiday during term time.
But some councils – East Riding of Yorkshire, Suffolk and the Isle of Wight where parent Jon Platt lost a high profile legal battle – issued penalties at a rate of more than 60 per 1,000 pupils.
Some councils reported a drop in the number of fines issued for term-time holidays during the Jon Platt court case.
Next year, the Isle of Wight is cutting the main summer school holidays to five weeks and adding an extra week in the autumn.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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