School attendance: guidance, absence codes and penalty notices (England)

This page is about schools in England. It does not cover Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

The statutory guidance and regulations

Working together to improve school attendance is the DfE's statutory guidance, dated July 2026 and updated on GOV.UK on 9 July 2026. Schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities must have regard to it (paragraph 1). Paragraph references below are to that edition.

The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 set the register requirements and codes. They apply to schools in England and came into force on 19 August 2024 (regulations 1–2). The National Framework for penalty notices is in Chapter 6 of the DfE guidance, paragraphs 179–205.

For our earlier explanation, read the attendance article. Use the current official text and paragraph references on this page for decisions about duties, codes and penalties.

Who is responsible for school attendance?

Schools: build relationships with families, maintain an attendance policy, record attendance accurately, follow up absence, analyse patterns and arrange support, including reasonable adjustments where needed. Work with the local authority and other partners as absence escalates (paragraphs 13–22 and 24–25).
The senior attendance champion: a designated senior leader sets the attendance vision, establishes effective systems, checks staff follow them, understands the data and evaluates progress. Attendance remains everyone's responsibility. Attendance or pastoral support staff can work directly with families; the champion carries the leadership responsibility (paragraphs 13 and 23).
The attendance officer and other named contacts: the school's policy should give contact details for day-to-day attendance queries and more detailed support, alongside the champion's name and contact details. Publish how families report unexpected absence and request leave (paragraphs 24 and 27).
Academy trust boards and maintained-school governing bodies: ensure leaders meet statutory duties, review and challenge attendance trends, ensure staff training and resource effective support. Trusts and federations should identify patterns and share effective practice across their schools (paragraphs 71–82, especially 75 and 77–78).
Local authorities: track local patterns and provide a School Attendance Support Team with communication and advice, Targeting Support Meetings, multi-disciplinary family support and legal intervention. These core functions are free to all schools regardless of type. The Virtual School monitors and improves attendance for children with a social worker (paragraphs 85–88).

Attendance registers: what must be recorded

The proprietor must ensure an admission register is kept and an attendance register is kept unless all pupils are boarders. Registers must be electronic, with a back-up at least once a month (regulation 5). Record each registered non-boarder's attendance at the beginning of each morning session and once during each afternoon session (regulation 10(1)).

Keep each entry for six years from the day it was made. Keep each back-up for six years after the end of the school year it relates to (regulation 7). An amendment must retain the original entry, amended entry, reason, date and name of the person making it (regulation 6).

Attendance and absence codes

The list below contains the codes specified in regulation 10. Apply the circumstances and conditions in the regulation when selecting a code.

Present at school — regulation 10(2), Table 1:

/ — present when the morning register begins.
\ — present when the afternoon register begins.
L — arrives after registration begins but before it ends.

Attending a place other than the school — regulation 10(3), Table 2:

K — educational provision arranged by the local authority under the provisions specified in Table 2.
V — an educational visit or trip arranged by or on behalf of the proprietor and supervised by school staff.
P — an approved educational sporting activity.
W — approved work experience arranged by the local authority or proprietor as part of the pupil's education.
B — another approved educational activity meeting regulation 10(11).

Absent — regulation 10(4), Table 3:

C1 — leave for a regulated performance or regulated employment abroad.
M — leave for a medical or dental appointment.
J1 — leave for an employment or educational admission interview.
S — leave to study for a public examination.
X — a pupil below or above compulsory school age, absent with leave when not timetabled to attend.
C2 — a compulsory-school-age pupil absent with leave under a temporary part-time timetable agreed by the proprietor and a parent they normally live with.
D — leave to attend another school at which the pupil is registered.
C — leave for another purpose.
T — a mobile child travelling with their parent while that parent travels for their trade or business.
R — a day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which a parent belongs.
I — unable to attend because of sickness.
Q — unable to attend because of a lack of access arrangements within regulation 10(12)–(13).
Y1 — normal school or local-authority transport is unavailable and the school is not within walking distance of the pupil's home.
Y2 — unable to attend because an emergency has caused widespread disruption to travel.
Y3 — part of the premises is unavoidably out of use and the pupil cannot practicably be accommodated in the remainder.
Y5 — unable to attend because of criminal justice detention within regulation 10(14).
Y6 — travel to or attendance at school would conflict with the public-health guidance or law on infection or disease specified in Table 3.
E — excluded for any other reason. DfE paragraphs 377–379 explain its use for suspension or permanent exclusion while the pupil remains on roll and no alternative provision has been made.
Y7 — unable to attend because of another unavoidable cause.
G — absent without leave for a holiday.
N — the circumstances of absence have not yet been established.
O — no other Table 3 row applies, or regulation 10(7) and (9)(b) requires it.

Codes specified outside the tables:

U — replaces N where the pupil arrived after registration ended but before the session ended, unless the established circumstances require an appropriate Table 2 or Table 3 code under regulation 10(8)(a) (regulation 10(7)–(8)).
Y4 — the school session is cancelled (regulation 10(10)).

Source: regulation 10, Tables 1–3 and paragraphs (7)–(10). Record the nature of the activity or provision for B and K, and the unavoidable cause for Y7 (regulation 10(5)–(6)). Follow up N and amend the register within five school days; if the reason remains unknown, replace it with O (regulation 10(7)–(9); DfE paragraphs 407–411).

Authorised absence, unauthorised absence and truancy

Use the pupil's actual circumstances and the relevant code. The regulations do not give ‘truancy’ its own code. DfE Chapter 8 classifies G, N, O and U as unauthorised absence (paragraphs 404–414). Authorised absence includes sickness recorded as I (paragraphs 373–376) and leave for a medical or dental appointment recorded as M (paragraphs 326–330). Attendance at another setting, unavoidable absence and authorised absence have distinct treatment: do not count every pupil away from the school site as unauthorised (Chapter 8, ‘Attending a place other than the school’ and ‘Absent - unable to attend school because of unavoidable cause’).

An absence form is a request for leave, not permission. Apply the leave provisions and consider the individual circumstances. Regulation 11 binds maintained schools and non-maintained special schools; DfE expects all schools to restrict leave to those circumstances. DfE does not generally regard a holiday or leisure and recreation as exceptional circumstances (paragraphs 36–37). A holiday without leave is G, and leave cannot be granted retrospectively (paragraphs 404–406).

When is a pupil persistently or severely absent?

Persistent absence: missing 10% or more of school. Schools and local authorities are expected to put additional targeted support in place to remove barriers and reengage the pupil (paragraph 134).
Severe absence: missing 50% or more of school. All partners should make these pupils the top priority for support and coordinate the more intensive help needed (paragraph 135).

Monitor both patterns and identify pupils needing help promptly (paragraph 137). These are absence thresholds, not thresholds for an automatic penalty notice. The penalty notice framework below concerns unauthorised absence and individual decisions.

Penalty notices: the national framework

The framework covers attendance penalty notices for pupils of compulsory school age and excludes independent schools. A notice can be issued to each parent liable for the offence; it should usually go only to the parent or parents who allowed the absence (paragraphs 179–180).

The national threshold is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week is any week with at least one school session. The sessions can be consecutive or non-consecutive, combine different unauthorised reasons and span terms or school years (paragraph 184).

Reaching the threshold requires state-funded schools to consider a notice in each individual case. It does not require automatic issue. Consider whether support is appropriate and has been provided, whether a notice is the best tool, Equality Act obligations and, for local authorities, the public interest. Authorised officers retain discretion to issue before the threshold where an offence has been committed, with the same considerations (paragraphs 184–188).

Where support is appropriate but has not worked or been engaged with, a Notice to Improve should usually give a final opportunity to engage. Its improvement period is between 3 and 6 weeks. It is not required where support is inappropriate, and an authorised officer can decide against using one in an individual case (paragraphs 189–193).

Amounts and repeat notices — paragraph 194:

First notice: £160 if paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
Second notice to the same parent for the same pupil within a rolling 3-year period: £160 if paid within 28 days, with no reduced rate.
Only 2 notices can be issued to the same parent for the same child within that 3-year rolling period. A third notice cannot be issued within 3 years of the first notice's issue date. When the threshold is met again, consider alternative action, often prosecution.

Check previous notices, including after a move between schools or local authorities. Unpaid notices count for escalation; withdrawn notices do not (paragraphs 196–198). Follow the local authority's published code of conduct (paragraphs 199–200). If a penalty remains unpaid at the end of 28 days, the local authority must decide whether to prosecute for the original offence or withdraw the notice (paragraph 202).

Notices for an excluded pupil's presence in a public place are outside this national attendance framework and its escalation limit (paragraph 183).

DfE attendance data and Monitor your school attendance

The DfE's Share your daily school attendance data guidance sets out the required information and submission arrangements. Its ‘Who this guidance is for’ and ‘Schools required to share attendance data’ sections identify the schools covered and the exclusions, including nursery schools and independent schools that are not academies.

Check that the school's MIS holds the required data and that Wonde retains permission to access it. These are the conditions for continuous compliance in ‘Continuous data sharing’. Schools without a compatible MIS use the direct submission arrangements in ‘Schools without a compatible MIS’.

Schools, trusts and local authorities can use Monitor your school attendance through View your education data (VYED) for dashboards and downloads of the daily data shared with DfE. Request VYED and the Monitor your school attendance sub-service through DfE Sign-in; the organisation's approver handles access (‘Monitor your school attendance’ and ‘How to get access’).

What to check this term

Confirm the senior attendance champion, day-to-day contacts, register closing times and absence reporting arrangements in the published policy (paragraphs 23–27).
Check registration, amendments, back-ups and retention against regulations 5–7 and 10. Resolve N within the required period and record the extra detail required for B, K and Y7.
Review individual and cohort patterns, agree targeted support with families and involve local partners as barriers intensify. Give severely absent pupils priority (paragraphs 17–22 and 134–137).
Review the local penalty notice code, support offered and previous notices before deciding each case. Check the rolling threshold and escalation history rather than resetting at the start of term (paragraphs 184–200).
Confirm continuous data sharing and staff access to Monitor your school attendance using the DfE sections linked above. Use the data to focus support, not just report an overall percentage (paragraphs 14 and 137).
Give the board attendance trends, the pupils and cohorts needing support and the impact of the school's response (paragraphs 78–79).

Common pitfalls

Treating an absence form as authorisation or granting holiday leave retrospectively (paragraphs 36–37 and 404–406).
Leaving N unresolved or treating all off-site education as absence (regulation 10(3), (7)–(9); paragraphs 40–41).
Confusing persistent absence with unauthorised absence, or waiting for severe absence before offering support (paragraphs 17–20 and 134–137).
Treating the national threshold as an automatic fine or a fresh allowance each term (paragraphs 184–188).
Applying the first-notice discount to a repeat notice or overlooking notices issued before a pupil moved (paragraphs 194 and 196–198).
Giving an attendance officer the task without the senior leadership responsibility and support the guidance expects (paragraphs 23–24).

Interview guides, roles and planners

Prepare for attendance responsibilities with the pastoral leadership interview guide and the pastoral leader role page. For the wider leadership role, read the headteacher, deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher role pages.

Organise attendance reviews and follow-up with the School Leader Planner®, deputy headteacher planner or assistant headteacher planner. Read the safeguarding guide alongside attendance work where absence raises a safeguarding concern (paragraphs 2 and 136).