School Attendance Rules: What Changed in July 2026

The school attendance rules in England are set out in one statutory document, and it was updated on 9 July 2026. Most of the changes are clarifications rather than new law, but two of them matter to parents directly: schools should not routinely ask for a doctor's note when a child is ill, and they should not run blanket policies that hand out leave of absence automatically. The rest of the framework is unchanged, and it is worth understanding because almost every argument about attendance comes down to a single question of who gets to decide.

That question has one answer. The school decides whether an absence is authorised. A parent can explain, and should, but only the school can record the absence as authorised, and only the school can grant a leave of absence. Everything below follows from that.

Graphic by Schools Insight, from the DfE's July 2026 statutory guidance.

Authorised, unauthorised, and why the label matters

Every half day a pupil is not in school is a session, and every session gets a code in the attendance register. The distinction that counts is not the reason but the classification: an absence is either authorised, meaning the school accepted the reason, or unauthorised, meaning it did not. Only unauthorised sessions count towards the threshold for a penalty notice.

Illness is the common case, and it is normally authorised on the parent's word. Other absences the school can authorise include a religious observance day set by the pupil's religious body, attending an interview for another school or for future employment, and study leave for public examinations, which the guidance is explicit does not extend to mocks or other internal exams.

Then there is the discretionary category, and it is the one that generates the disputes.

Leave of absence for exceptional circumstances

All schools can grant a leave of absence for exceptional circumstances at their discretion. In a maintained school or a non-maintained special school it has to be requested in advance by a parent the pupil normally lives with. If leave is granted, the school also decides how long it lasts.

What counts as exceptional is not defined, deliberately, but the guidance is direct about what does not: the DfE does not generally consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. It also says leave should not be granted for a pupil to take part in protest activity during school hours.

The July 2026 addition is the interesting one. Schools are expected to consider each application individually, taking account of the specific facts and the background to the request, and they should not apply blanket policies under which leave is granted automatically in response to particular circumstances or events. That cuts both ways. A school that has quietly waved through a category of request has been told to stop, and a school that refuses everything with a form letter is equally not considering applications on their merits. If a request was refused without any sign that the circumstances were looked at, that is the point to make. Our guide to term time holiday fines covers what follows if leave is refused and the trip goes ahead anyway.

Illness and medical evidence

This is the change most likely to affect an ordinary family. The guidance now states that schools are not expected to routinely request medical evidence to support illness absences, and should not have blanket rules requiring it. In the majority of cases, a parent's notification that their child is too ill to attend can be accepted without question or concern.

A school may still ask for reasonable evidence in two situations: where it has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness, or where it is trying to support a pupil with a prolonged or repeated pattern of illness. Even then, the guidance tells schools not to be rigid about the form of the evidence, and warns that asking for letters from health professionals puts avoidable pressure on GP appointment systems, particularly for illnesses that would not normally need treatment at all.

The suggested starting point is a conversation with the parent, which the guidance says may itself be enough. Beyond that, schools are pointed towards wider evidence: prescriptions, medication, evidence of appointments, and for an ongoing condition being clinically managed, letters from medical professionals. If a parent cannot provide evidence in the form requested but can provide something else, the school should take that into account.

If a child's health needs are complex, long term or recurring, the school can seek medical evidence for a different purpose: to understand the needs and identify the right provision, rather than to police the register. That is a support conversation, and it links across to our guide on SEND support in schools.

The 10% and 50% lines

Two figures define the escalation. Persistent absence starts at missing 10% or more of school, which the guidance describes as the equivalent of a day or more a fortnight across a full school year. At that point schools and local authorities are expected to work together to put targeted support in place, and the guidance is pointed about how: it tells schools to consider the reasons sensitively and understand the importance of school as a place of safety, rather than reaching immediately for punitive approaches.

Severe absence starts at 50%, where a pupil is absent more often than they are present. These pupils are meant to be the top priority for support across every partner, which may mean an attendance plan, a whole family plan, consideration of an education, health and care plan, or alternative provision. The guidance also flags the safeguarding end of it: where every avenue of support has been provided and severe unauthorised absence continues, it is likely to constitute neglect, and a full children's social care assessment should follow.

Both figures are meant to be monitored continuously rather than reviewed at the end of the year, and both are supposed to sit at the centre of a school's attendance strategy.

The support ladder, and where enforcement sits

The framework is deliberately sequential: expect, monitor, listen and understand, facilitate support, formalise support, and only then enforce. Formalising support means a Notice to Improve, a final warning that gives a family a chance to engage before a penalty notice is issued. Enforcement is meant to be what happens when support has been offered and has not worked or has not been engaged with, or when support was never the right tool in the first place, which the guidance gives term time holiday as the typical example of.

The national threshold for considering a penalty notice is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. Because a session is half a day, that is five school days. It can be met by any combination of unauthorised absence, and the guidance gives four sessions of term time holiday plus six sessions of arriving after the register closed as an example. The sessions do not have to be consecutive, and the 10 week window can run across terms or even school years.

Reaching the threshold does not mean a fine. It means the school must consider one, weighing whether support would be more appropriate, whether a penalty notice is the best tool for that family, and whether any Equality Act duties apply, such as where a pupil has a disability. A blanket position either way, always fining or never fining, is not allowed.

Where a notice is issued, the first is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. A second notice for the same parent and the same child is a flat £160, and only two can be issued in a rolling three year period, after which the route is prosecution rather than another fine. There is a separate, smaller penalty of £120, reduced to £60 within 21 days, for allowing a child to be in a public place during school hours in the first five days of an exclusion. The full escalation is set out in our guide to school attendance fines in England.

What else changed in July 2026

The DfE describes this edition as clarifications following feedback. The ones parents and governors are most likely to notice:

Registers should be taken at the same time for all pupils.
Young carers are named explicitly as a cohort schools should be identifying and monitoring.
Remote education should only be used as a last resort, and only as part of a reintegration plan.
Clearer direction on illness absence and when medical evidence may be appropriate.
No blanket policies granting leave of absence automatically.
Clarified use of specific register codes, including dual registration, flexi-schooling, no fixed abode and access arrangements.
Technical points on removing a pupil added to the admission register in error, on the meaning of "reasonable distance", and on reasonable adjustments.

If you disagree with a decision

There is no formal appeal against a school's decision to record an absence as unauthorised. What there is, in practice, is the school's complaints procedure, and then the governing body or trust. Three things make a case stronger: putting the request or explanation in writing at the time rather than afterwards, asking the school to set out which part of its policy it applied, and pointing to the requirement that each application is considered on its individual merits. If the disagreement is really about a health condition or unmet special educational needs, the more productive route is usually the support one, starting with our guide to SEND support in schools.

More parent guides are on the Schools Insight homepage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who decides whether an absence is authorised?

The school, not the parent. A parent can explain why a child was away, but only the school can record the absence as authorised, and only the school can grant a leave of absence. That is why a request for term time leave can be refused and the days then recorded as unauthorised even though the parent gave notice.

Does my child's school need a doctor's note when they are ill?

Usually not. The July 2026 guidance says schools are not expected to routinely request medical evidence for illness absence and should not have blanket rules requiring it. In the majority of cases a parent's word that the child is too ill for school can be accepted without question. A school may ask for reasonable evidence where it has genuine doubt about the illness, or where it is trying to support a prolonged or repeated pattern.

What counts as persistent absence?

Missing 10% or more of school, which the guidance puts at a day or more a fortnight across a full year. Above that line, the school and the local authority are expected to work together on targeted support. Severe absence is missing 50% or more, meaning a child is out of school more than they are in it, and that group is meant to be the top priority for support across every agency.

Can a school refuse a term time holiday?

Yes, and in most cases it should. Schools can grant leave of absence for exceptional circumstances at their discretion, but the DfE does not generally consider a need or desire for a holiday or other leisure absence to be exceptional. The July 2026 edition added that schools must consider each application on its individual merits and must not run blanket policies that grant leave automatically.

When does a school have to consider a fine?

At the national threshold: 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A session is half a day, so 10 sessions is five school days. Those sessions can be any mix of unauthorised absence, including late arrivals after the register closes, and the 10 week period can span terms or school years. Reaching the threshold triggers a decision, not an automatic fine.

What is a Notice to Improve?

A formal warning issued before a penalty notice, giving a family a final chance to engage with support where attendance has not improved. It sits between voluntary support and enforcement in the DfE's ladder, and it is the step schools are expected to use when support is available but is not working or not being taken up.

Sources

DfE: Working together to improve school attendance, July 2026 edition, for the change list, leave of absence rules, medical evidence expectations, the 10% and 50% definitions and the penalty notice framework

Checked on 10 September 2026. Applies to England. Local authorities set their own codes of conduct for penalty notices, so check yours for local detail.