Your legal responsibility as a parent or carer

By law, all children must:

  • receive appropriate full-time education from aged 5 onwards
  • continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they turn 18

It is your responsibility to make sure this happens by:

  • registering your child at a school and ensuring they attend regularly, or
  • arranging an alternative full-time education, such as educating your child at home

A parent is defined as the natural parent, the person with whom the child lives or the person who has day-to-day care of the child.

If your child is not attending school, you must make other arrangements to provide them with an efficient education suited to their:

  • age
  • ability and aptitude
  • any special educational needs

Your child must:

  • attend school every day unless there are justified reasons
  • arrive at school on time
  • attend all lessons

If your child is going to miss all or part of the school day, you must tell the school.

If you do not tell the school, they may mark it as an unauthorised absence. The school may still consider an absence unauthorised, even if you state why your child was absent.