Parents fined for non school attendance ...

Seems to me that the authority is taking the easy way out and blaming the parents. Hows about considering being bullied by other pupils, or even some staff?

There were academic studies on "School Phobia" in the 1980s so it's not all that new.

From 1891 it was free to go to school from age 5 up to age 10, Magenta8 but only around 82% actually went.
Many children, from poorer families, still needed to work (outside school hours, or illegally) to contribute to the family income.
​Truancy was a significant problem.
​And there were "Exemptions" allowed - this was used a lot - especially in agricultural areas.

And of course free secondary education for all pupils wasn't legislated for until the Education Act 1944 - less than 100 years ago.

The wait for a CAHMS assessment is long, not months, but longer, meanwhile, until a child has an EHCP in place, if appropriate, the necessary support may not be forthcoming. The families struggle on, it’s tough, particularly for working parents, school collections, meetings, upset children on and on. My family are going through it now.

Golly, Chazz- bullied by staff?

Jaxjacky

The wait for a CAHMS assessment is long, not months, but longer, meanwhile, until a child has an EHCP in place, if appropriate, the necessary support may not be forthcoming. The families struggle on, it’s tough, particularly for working parents, school collections, meetings, upset children on and on. My family are going through it now.

You are right- it is a struggle most people have no idea how much.

I really hope things turn around for you and your family soon.

Chocolatelovinggran

Golly, Chazz- bullied by staff?

It happened at my school. There was an RI teacher who fixated on this one pupil and used to spend part of every lesson putting them down in front of the class. Apparently this teacher had a victim in nearly every class they taught.

One thing I do know for sure is, those parents who co-operate with the school are targeted
Those parents who ignore the phone calls/ texts/ emails are left alone because the schools know it’s a waste of their time.
I know this from personal experience with my granddaughter.
The parents of the girls she was involved with received the same letters that my daughter received.
My daughter engaged, non of the others did so they were left alone.
Non of these other parents attended the school when asked to attend to discuss their children’s behaviour
My daughter and son in law attended every one.

I remember being shocked by the way one child was treated at my last primary school. I was only there for a year and had no idea what her story was, but she seemed to be living with a relative rather than parents. She always looked grubby, with a runny nose, and spent most of her time crying. Naturally she was a target for all the other children, but the teachers were just as horrible to her. I was only 10 but I was sure it was wrong, but there didn't seem to be anything I could do. I didn't even mention it at home as I was sure my mother would just say that the teachers knew best. Looking back I'm sure she should never have been in a mainstream school.

My oldest grandson started school as a model pupil. For the first three years he never had a day off, he had 100% attendance certificates every term, and the teachers loved him because he was so clever. That stopped overnight when he reached a point where he just couldn't do it any more. When he did go to school he started running away. It reached a point where the school were talking about raising the school fences to stop him climbing out. Finally he got an assessment and a teacher who understood him but, although things got much better it was never easy.

I have been fighting to get one of my children to school since age 5. He is 19 and still has not gotten a diploma. Even more frustrating, he is weeks away from finishing it. I.just can't get him to do it.

It has been one of the most exhausting, stressful, and non-stop process. I am not giving up until he gets that diploma, but once he does I never want to talk about school with him again.

imaround - how dreadful for both of you.

I feel for you imaround. I was there 20+ years ago. I too was exhausted, demoralised, beaten. A friend who was a teacher actually said to me he would be ok, the system just wasn’t right for him. I was so angry with her at the time because I thought she didn’t understand, but in fact she was right. He is fine, he still can’t (or won’t) articulate what was wrong for all those years, but he’s happy, successful and wonderful! Please hold on to hope that your son will find his way

Thank you keepingquiet.

So many of us seem to have experience of this and yet still parents are blamed

I don't think blame should come into this.
It's sad all round, nightowl
And the fact that it's been going on for years shows that it's not a "new" thing.

I know of at least three school refusers one being a GC.

There really should be more understanding of this, blaming parents and leaving them with a criminal record is not helping anyone.

GrannyGravy13

I know of at least three school refusers one being a GC.

There really should be more understanding of this, blaming parents and leaving them with a criminal record is not helping anyone.

Sometimes it is because of bullying which the school is sometimes reluctant to deal with.

Allira yes in some cases it is bullying, denial by the school and teaching staff lacking in empathy.

My D-i-L, printed and laminated a sheet of paper for our GC to show teachers. This was done with the agreement with the HT, unfortunately due to the fact that there were many supply teachers who were not aware, this caused more problems.

Our GC is neurodivergent, very high functioning, just doesn’t really like people other than family.

Thank you! We are getting close. I have been very hands on and we are on the right track now. Fingers crossed. Of course Ive said that before. I think this time I may turn into one of those crazy parents you see who attends school with their child to ensure he attends and does the work.

Every case of school refusal is a unique one. I think we could go a long way in creating a school system that isn't trying to fit a round, rectangle and triangle shaped block into a square hole. We were making some progress in my state, but a recent loss of funding is gutting public education here, which cuts alternative education programs for students in this situation.

I am grateful that my kids are nearly done with schooling, but worry about what it will look like for my grandkids.

I am not patient enough to homeschool my kids, but if I were starting as parents now, they would be homeschooled.

Our school district has a program for homeschoolers where we can check out curriculum of choice if they have it and the students all meet one day a week for science hands on, field trips and socialization. But we are one of the lucky districts. Not all have these kinds of programs. It is a great way to keep an eye on homeschooled children to ensure they aren't just being "homeschooled".

In the UK I think most people prefer the term "Home Education" imaround - I'm not saying this by way of correction - just because it shows a different approach.
Not much "schooling" as in following specific programmes/ or even a "curriculum of choice" over here. At least I think these are newer to us in the UK - though even 40 or 50 years ago they were available in the US. Maybe growing post covid?

Previously (at least when we did it) home education was much more part of an idealogy- unless a child really struggled to settle at school of course.

Yes, education is a very different system in the US and they have far more home-schooling than we do here.

I once taught a girl who thought she was being 'home-schooled' by me in the same way she had seen American children being on TV, I presume.

That student was back in full time school after a few months!

I'm in Menorca now, there are a lot of school age English children here.

Homeschool had been a more fringe decision historically. That has all changed since Covid and because of whatever else is happening surrounding schools in the US.

I believe(d) in our public school system, but they found a way to treat students as commodities by tracking/selling test scores and biometric data.

The goal of schooling isn't about educating kids any longer. It is about funneling tax dollars to vendors.

In my opinion of course.

School refusing is a real and very tricky thing. A family member had to deal with it and it is unbelievably stressful. It’s easy to say ‘well just take them’ but it’s not that simple. This was a girl student who fuelled by hormones and an absolute terror of school would fight like her life depended on it. It ended up with it tipping into violence that the parent just could not deal with. If it went too far the adult then becomes an attacker. It’s not the truth obviously but it’s a fine line. She is now grown and with a job ( ironically in a school) and her emotions problems although not gone are having less of an impact. Nothing is clear cut .