Number of children going on unauthorised term-time holidays soars by nearly 60,000 as parents push back after Dad’s legal challenge against taking his kid to Disney World
THE number of children taken out of class for unauthorised holidays soared by almost 60,000 at the end of last year following a high-profile legal challenge by a dad who refused to pay a £60 fine for taking his daughter to Disney World.
Government figures show parents were apparently encouraged by Jon Platt's victory last summer at the High Court, which cast doubt on councils' authority to issue penalties.
Last July senior judges ruled in favour of Mr Platt, who was cleared by magistrates because his six-year-old daughter had an otherwise good attendance record at her primary school on the Isle of Wight.
It led to many similar prosecutions being dropped as councils were left in legal limbo until April this year when the Supreme Court ruled Mr Platt should have been prosecuted and councils can issue fines.
Today stats from the Department of Education reveal a surge in unauthorised absences in the autumn term 2016, the first full term after the Platt case hit the headlines.
Some 328,555 kids were absent for family holidays that were not agreed by their headteachers at state schools in England.
This was a rise of 58,335 on the autumn term in 2015.
The DfE’s statisticians said in their report: “The absence figures in this publication are the first that relate fully to the period after the Isle of Wight council v Jon Platt High Court judgement.”
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The problem was worse in primary schools where 9.4 per cent of absences were due to unauthorised family holidays, compared with 4.3 per cent in secondary schools.
The rise last year came after a sharp fall in the number of term-time holidays in recent years after a crackdown on truancy meant headteachers were given less leeway to approve absences.
Previously, heads had been able to grant up to two weeks for family holidays for pupils with good attendance records.
But that was changed in 2013 with new rules instructed heads they can authorise absences only in “exceptional” cases.
Overall absence rates remain low at just over 4 per cent.
Around two-thirds of school absences in England were due to illness or medical appointments.
Businessman Mr Platt, 46, said the landmark Supreme Court judgement in April would "criminalise" millions of parents simply for taking their kids on holiday.
Isle of Wight council dragged him through a two-year court battle after its prosecution was chucked out by magistrates when he refused to pay a £60 fixed penalty notice after a seven-day family holiday to Florida in April 2015.
He says he did not choose the date to save money but because his other kids go to a different school with different term dates.
Ruling against him, Lady Hale, deputy president of the UK's highest court, said parents taking their kids on holiday in term time is "a slap in the face" to other families who stick to the rules.
The case sparked calls for a cap on summer holiday prices to stop agents ramping up the costs during school breaks.
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