Both the English and Welsh education ministries have resumed fining parents for school non-attendance. This in spite of research in other countries which suggests that they bear down on families which can least afford it and who have good reasons for keeping their children at home, while well-off parents merely treat the fixed penalties as the price for permission to take their children on holiday in term time. The experience of Black Country schools summarised in this Wolverhampton Express & Star article backs up the research and demonstrates that UK social attitudes do not deviate from the norm.
James Bowen, director of policy for the National Association of Headteachers, [...] said: “Fines have always been a blunt instrument when it comes to managing persistent absenteeism, and even more so if the reasons are related to the pandemic.
“The reality is that if a parent is concerned enough about their child’s safety to keep them off school, the threat of a fine is unlikely to change their minds.”
Recent cases of unchecked bullying in Welsh schools emphasise the point.
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