Increasing fines for parents whose children have poor attendance is the kind of headline-grabbing idea that is actually a lot more complicated than it appears.
Truancy isn’t just about sneaking cigarettes from the corner shop or playing Xbox while your parents think you’re at school.
So when I heard that the number of parents being fined for their children’s low attendance had increased sharply after dropping dramatically during the pandemic, I felt betrayed by a government that doesn’t seem willing to listen to what parents and teachers have to say.
Parents have been fined £3.7 million this school year alone, according to the BBC. This follows Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi’s promise to crack down on truancy as part of the government’s Schools Bill, which was announced earlier this year, as well as concerns raised by a right-wing think tank about “ghost children” lost in the system.
School is crucial. That goes without saying as a teacher, and for some school-refusers, fines may be just the thing to entice them back into the classroom.
However, if we truly care about children being happy, healthy, and present in school – and if their families and situations are important – we must go deeper into the issues at hand.
Low-attendance students frequently have tumultuous family life and a variety of extenuating conditions, ranging from mental health concerns to impairments to financial difficulties. These are delicate and difficult situations that necessitate investment and help rather than one-size-fits-all solutions like penalties.
It looks like parents are penalised for trying to protect their children
Parents of disabled children have long urged the government to take into account a lack of money for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) services when levying fines on families who frequently leave their children home from school due to a lack of support in the classroom.
In addition, a BBC story earlier this year cautioned that’special educational needs families are falling through the cracks,’ with parents of children awaiting diagnosis for disorders such as autism in particular at danger of fines.
While maskless Tube trains and a lack of social distancing may lead us to believe that coronavirus has vanished entirely, children who are clinically fragile remain at risk from a pandemic that has yet to end.
In February of this year, 320,000 pupils were still missing due to Covid-related issues, and some parents of children who are still shielding their children are facing fines for attempting to keep their children safe.
Despite Nadhim Zahawi’s assurances that school administrators can use individual judgment, it appears that some parents are being punished for attempting to protect their children.
When I think of students with low attendance that I’ve encountered over my years as a teacher, I think of students who miss school to care for their sick parents or younger siblings.
I think of the children who have mental health problems and have waited years for care from the NHS.
At the age of 12, I imagine young individuals who are new to the nation and spend their days assisting their families in navigating the intentionally perplexing immigration bureaucracy, deciphering official letters and conversing with officials on the phone.
My 13-year-old daughter refused to go to school after lockdown ended.
‘One morning, she simply said she couldn’t put her uniform on or go in. I knew nothing about school ‘refusal’ or why it might happen – that anxiety could build to such an extent that going into school could feel physically impossible.
‘I had never experienced major worries about school myself and, naively, I thought young people just got up and went unless they were physically ill.
‘For the next few weeks, I tried to cajole, persuade and reason with her. I even attempted to force her (yes, I bundled her into the car one day). That led to a panic attack. Whenever I mentioned school, she became extremely angry.’
Fines are unnecessary for these children. They require infrastructure and resources to allow them to be children with no obligations other than to attend school, study, grow, and have fun.
School workers, as is often the case, are on the ground trying to get young people like her in the classroom, studying and engaging with their peers. Pastoral teams make house calls, meet with parents to figure out what’s wrong, and communicate with outside agencies to receive aid.
During exam season, school vehicles are diverted from transporting students to football tournaments to pick up students who would not attend their tests and ensure their attendance in order to assure a better future for them. Schools do it on their own dime and with their own funds.
While the government focuses on criminalizing families who require assistance, schools are providing real alternatives.
We’re in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, with many families scrambling to put food on the table and skipping out on anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. I find it insensitive and cruel to levy fines of £60 per child per day (doubling if not paid) under these circumstances, given that for some families, this will be financially crippling, whereas for wealthier families, it may be a cost they can afford to keep their child at home due to safety or a lack of support at school.
Instead of fines, we need adequate financing to ensure that all students may thrive and prosper in school.
We require solutions that address the underlying causes of the issues at hand.
And, if the government is set on continuing its policy of fining parents, why not put that money back into schools so that fewer children are turned away and forced to go for help elsewhere?