School Lateness Fines

[Danny2013]

Yesterday my parter came home and informed me that my sun had come out of class an gave her a letter. I the letter it outlined that the school was adopting a policy of fining parents £50 if there child was late more than 5 times. I found this disturbing, that the school thinks it has aright to fine parents and that it would possibly be counter productive and lead to increased absences.

Tha crux of my question is would such a fine be legally enforceable without agreement from parents and if so under what legislation.

The school is a state run school,not an academy if this make any difference

[VHG]

Or "son" even.

[rockyracoon]

I would have thought that they need to give you warnings first, at the school my kids go to, the fines come from local government, not the school itself.

[Old_Geezer]

Not another way for authorities to "steal" from the rest of us surely ?

I'd not put it past them. I recall the teachers demanding a fee at the start of each new term and insisting it wasn't an option. Wasn't so long ago I saw a claim saying these things were voluntary contributions. Not to those bullied out of it they weren't.

Best of luck getting a desirable answer to this.

[Khandro]

It was a long time ago, but I don't think I was ever late for school, not even once, my mother made sure of that, and I can't remember anyone else coming into the class late either. Maybe as a consequence I am never late for anything. Punctuality is a state of mind, and a courtesy, it's not difficult, you simply do the same things earlier.

[factor-fiction]

The school may say you are free to look for another school if you don't agree with the rules.
I'm not sure of the legal position but I assume they checked that out. I agree that it could lead to parents ringing in saying the child is sick when they have simply overslept, but a lot of absences occur because pupils wander off to the shops or mes around en-route.
It would seem harsh if the problem was the result of public transport problems.
You could raise it with the governors/PTA

[jd_1984]

Are we allowed to take £50 out of staff wages for 5 counts of lateness???

[THECORBYLOON]

It's Section 23 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 and subsequent Regulations allow for fixed penalty notices to be issued for absences/lateness.

[Mosaic]

Danny, kids need to get into the habit of turning up on time. Being late means a kid misses key events and important social bonding that are beneficial to their education. My recommendation is bite down on it and don't deliver him to school late, then you'll never need to test the legality.

[factor-fiction]

Is it 5 latenesses in a term, a year or in 5 years?
The occasional lateness may be unavoidable in the event of an emergency but to be late 5 times in a term would suggest that there is a serious problem that the child and parent need to address.
Most schools allow some leeway- if schools start at 8.45 the registration may not take place until 8.55 so pupils will get away with the odd few. but if school starts at 8.45 I'd want my children to aim to get there before 8.30 in case of any delays en route

[Danny2013]

Thanks to everyone for there time in reading and responding it is appreciated

for the record my son has 100% attendance and is very really late and fines would not effect me directly I was looking for ansar on the legality of the fines themselves still very intresting to get an idea of people's opinions

VHG thanks for the correction probably be more to come

[bednobs]

ok, if you'd like
there = their
really = rarely
ansar = answer

[Danny2013]

Bednobs Thanks again I am dyslexic so will probably still keep wrighting them incorrectly hope it dosent wind to many readers up as I know poor grammar and spelling can grate on some people's nerves

[factor-fiction]

Glad we helped, Danny.

Do you know whether it's 5 lates per term or per year?

As for the dyslexia issue, don't worry- we can follow your posts but you may find it helps to use an online spellchecker to help pick out words such as ansar and wrighting.

[sir.prize]

Surely only statutory authorities or courts can impose 'fines'.

[Khandro]

Danny; If you go to http://www.iespell.com/ you can add a free spell checker, then before you post, simply right click and then click 'Check spelling' and it will do just that for you.

[Danny2013]

Factor or fiction sorry didn't have the detail until my partner came home it is 5 in a month

All that have suggested spell check. Thanks I do have spell checker on the iPad I am using but it's not great the one on my PC is better but it doesn't always help and sometimes i just haven't got time to worry if my spelling is top notch in a non formal setting such as this. There are people with much more difficult thing to live so not going to worry or take offence.

[IggyB]

Section 23 of The Anti-Social Act 2003 enables an authorised officer to give a fixed penalty notice for breaches to Section 444 of the Education Act 1996, none of this is applicable in this case (as outlined) because the school are not authorised officers and Section 444 of the Education Act deals with failure to attend rather than timeliness.

The arrangement being described does not seem to be supported by any legislation however the school is free to ask for an agreement from parents... the parents are equally free to decline. In the absence of any agreement I would suggest that this new arrangement could not be enforced (also the cost of trying to enforce such a rule would be prohibitive even if the parent had originally agreed and then reneged).

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/38/section/23

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/444

[THECORBYLOON]

Iggy, The Education (Penalty Notices) (England) Regulations 2004 says

"Authority to issue penalty notices
8. A head teacher may authorise a deputy or assistant head teacher to issue penalty notices. "

From the Dept for Educations website,

"Penalty notices are fines of £60/£120 imposed on parents. They are an alternative to the prosecution of parents for failing to ensure that their child of compulsory school age regularly attends the school where they are registered or at a place where alternative provision is provided. They can only be issued by a head teacher or someone authorised by them (a deputy or assistant head authorised by the head teacher), a local authority officer or the police. All schools and the police must send copies of penalties issued to the local authority. Penalty notices can be issued to each parent liable for the attendance offence or offences."

If you do a quick search on Google you will see many examples of when the Penalty Notices can be issued and lateness is one of them.

[Danny2013]

The corby loon I have just read section 444 of the education act and I cannot see any reference to lateness as pointed by Iggy . It is my understanding that a statue must be explicit and therefore I would be interested to find out if the fines were in fact contested. I am sure there is lots of local authorities doing this but doesn't automatically follow that it is legal. I suspect that most people would except fines without questioning the legality. I will google it again to see if there were any people that contested the fine and what there defence was should I find that someone has and failed.

For