Attendance and exclusions

Schools have a legal duty under the  Children and Families Act 2014 to work with you to identify and support any special needs that your child may have.

This means that if your child is struggling to attend school because of their SEND, their school should be working to offer appropriate support or to further investigate your child's SEND if not enough is known about it.

They can also take advice from and make referrals to other external support services and teams.

If you think that your child doesn’t want to go to school because of their SEND, you could ask for a meeting with the school to discuss this. We can help you to prepare for a school meeting.

If you feel that the school are not able to meet your child’s needs you can also consider an EHC needs assessment .

If your child already has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), it may need to be reviewed. For example, it may be that your child has developed new social, emotional or mental health needs that are not covered by the existing plan. We can help you to prepare for a review.

You could also speak to your child's doctor (GP) about your concerns. If the GP agrees that your child is not currently able to attend school, ask them for a letter, to give as evidence to the school or local authority for their non-attendance.

If your child is not attending school due to a long term medical or mental health condition, you can find further information and advice on our medical needs page.

All schools, academies and free schools have a statutory duty to provide full-time education for all pupils of compulsory school age.

Education should be:

• Full-time

• Efficient - the education must achieve what it sets out to achieve

• Suitable - to their age, ability and aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. The education must also equip the child for life within the community and must not limit a child’s options in later life.

In exceptional circumstances, schools may decide to propose a reduced timetable to support a pupils needs.

There must be a clear reason and some evidence as to why this approach is needed.  

The Equalities Act 2010 says that it is illegal for schools to discriminate against pupils on the basis of their special educational need and/or disability, including those with social emotional and mental health difficulties.

Key points for using reduced timetables

• It must be done with parent agreement, otherwise it could be considered unlawful exclusion

• Exclusion must not be threatened as a means of getting parent agreement

• It must not be viewed as a long term solution, usually with a maximum of 6 weeks

• It must plan towards the pupil increasing their time in school and for any support that they will need upon their return

• It needs a time limit by which point the pupil is expected to attend full-time, or be provided with alternative provision

• It needs to be monitored and reviewed regularly

• Where a child is Looked After, subject to Early Help plan or any other services are involved, the timetable should be discussed with and agreed by all parties

• If there is an EHCP, a review must be held and the local authority must agree to the reduced timetable and planning

• A risk assessment should be done to look at the possible impact of the pupil being out of their education and agree how this can be managed

• The arrangement should not negatively affect any agreed SEND transport arrangements

• If the pupil is entitled to free school meals, these should be provided (perhaps as a packed lunch)

• Absences should be formally recorded using an appropriate code as an authorised absence (often coded as 'C') 

Further information 

For further information, you could look at:

• The  DFE working together to improve school attendance guidance

• The Coram legal website   

• The IPSEA website  

• IPSEA Exclusions Factsheet- What is Legal?   

These terms are used to describe the education arrangements made for those children that cannot attend school for another reason (so are out of School) or excluded pupils to continue to have a suitable, full-time education whilst they are excluded from school.

In some circumstances, alternative provision can be used where a child has not been excluded, where there are medical needs or they need a placement to support them with their behaviour or SEND needs.

If your child is of compulsory school age but is not receiving education because:

• illness is preventing them from being able to attend school
• they have been permanently excluded from school, or
• for any other reason

Then under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 the local authority (LA) has a legal duty to secure suitable, full-time alternative education for them. If your child/young person is on roll at a school this will be undertaken by them in the first instance, but they may also involve and inform the local authority about the matter.

This type of education must be full-time unless a reduced level of education would be in your child’s best interests because of their physical or mental health. Alternative provision’s (AP’s) can be only for 2 days a week as they are not registered as a school, but multiple alternative provisions can be used. Your child’s/young person’s education can be a combination of these types of provisions and the school they are on roll with can also provide an education package alongside to create a full-time educational package.

The provision must also be suitable for your child’s age, ability, aptitude, and special educational needs (SEN). You can find more information about what the local authority must arrange when putting in place alternative education in government guidance.

Along with speaking to the school or college your child/young person attends you can request directly to the local authority that they provide alternative education. IPSEA have a template letter to help you. You should use the template letter which reflects the reason your child is out of school. The date by which the local authority will have to provide full-time education for your child will depend on the reason they are unable to attend school.

'Arranging Alternative Provision A Guide for Local Authorities and Schools February 2025 (Page 22)

'However, as soon as it is clear that the home school can no longer support the child’s health needs and provide suitable education, the school should speak to the local authority about putting alternative provision in place. Further guidance can be found at Education for children with health needs who cannot attend school'.

The school the child/young person is on roll with or the local authority if they are not on roll at a school, will need to consider the travel arrangements for getting the child/young person to and from the alternative provision. This is covered in DFE Arranging Alternative Provision A Guide for Local Authorities and Schools

‘Page 27'

'Both the home school and the host school will need to consider travel and transport, setting out what support they will put in place to help a child attend the in-school unit, especially as these may be a considerable distance from home / home school’

Students in alternative provision should receive the same amount of education as they would receive in a maintained school, unless it is not appropriate, for example for a student with a medical condition or their SEND needs.

Alternative provision must meet the needs of students and enable them to achieve 'good' to 'outstanding' educational attainment level with their mainstream peers, while the needs which require intervention are addressed and supported. The length of time a student spends in alternative provision will depend on what best supports the students' needs and potential educational attainment. If further funding is needed to pay for this the school/college can apply for this from the local authority, this type of funding in known as SENIF (special educational needs intervention funding) the school will need to able to demonstrate to the local authority how they have spent their SEND budget (£6000) per academic year and what further funding they need to put the educational package in place or use the funding from a EHCP, if your child has one of these. If your child/young person has an EHCP and your child is not receiving the special educational provision set out in Section F of their EHC  plan you can inform the local authority of its duty under Section 42 Children and Families Act 2014.You can find out move about this on our webpage ‘What if the plan isn’t helping’ 

The school your child attends and is on roll with will need to visit and approve the alternative provision provider as any child or young person placed by a school in alternative education provision, either full or part time, remains the responsibility of the school, and they retain their place on the roll of that school and is dual registered (registered at both the school and alternative provision).

The school remains responsible for the monitoring and tracking of attainment, attendance, behaviour and safeguarding of their students placed in alternative provision. Alternative provision used for this purpose must undergo the same rigorous quality assurance processes as those implemented for longer term placement.

If your child does not have an allocated school place, then it is the local authorities responsibility to arrange an alternative education provider as every child of school age has the right to education , this is in the Education act 1996

The child, parents/carers and all professionals involved must be clear why, when, where, and how the placement will be reviewed, and reviews should be frequent enough to provide assurance that the off-site education is achieving its objectives and that the student is benefiting from it.