The school attendance crisis: number of unauthorised holiday absences decreases

Since August 2024, unauthorised absence fines start at £80 per child, per parent. A second penalty for the same child within three years doubles to £160, while a third offence is referred straight for prosecution consideration. Now in its second year, this escalating threat of double fines and legal action is encouraging many parents to think twice before taking their child out of school early.

To assess the true impact of unauthorised absences due to holidays, Access Education has released an updated ‘School Performance Crisis Report’, looking at last year’s findings versus this year. 

Using data from the Department for Education, this in-depth report analysed pupil attendance figures across regions in England to uncover which area has the highest number of unauthorised absences due to holidays. 

While there are many reasons pupils may be marked as having an ‘unauthorised absence’, such as truancy or illness without a note, this report focused only on term-time holidays, which account for just over 10% of all unauthorised absences nationwide.

It also explores how education software can support both teachers and parents through to the end of term and how school absence fines have changed in recent years, possibly affecting the number of pupils taken out of school during term-time.

A nationwide review of over 3,000 state-funded secondary schools reveals that unauthorised holiday absences fell by nearly 2% in a single academic year. While total holiday-related absences remain high at over 11.4 million, this drop marks an encouraging turnaround for both schools and parents.

This positive trend was felt across the country during the 2025/2026 academic year, with almost every region recording a decline, led by significant drops in the East of England (down 6.39%) and the South West (down 5.44%).

This marks a dramatic shift from the 2023/2024 to 2024/2025 period, when unauthorised holiday absences surged nationwide as families rushed to take cheaper trips before strict penalty rules kicked in that summer.

The only two regions which continued to see an increase in unauthorised absences were the South East (1.82%) and North West (2.72%).

Beyond the threat of fines, academic performance is another key reason students are staying through to the end of term. Research shows that Year 11 pupils with near-perfect attendance are nearly twice as likely to achieve a grade 5 in their English and Maths GCSEs, whereas missing just 10 days of school a year can halve their chances of hitting that benchmark.

The impact of missed school extends far beyond the classroom. Department for Education data highlights that these losses compound over time, with persistently absent secondary students earning up to £10,000 less per year by age 28 compared to peers with high attendance. 

As it has been shown, the introduction and increase in school absence fines have so far had an impact on the number of unauthorised absences in schools across England; however, there is still a long way to go. Not only is it important to schools that the rules they enforce are recognised by parents, but it is also a way to set examples and expectations for pupils for the future.

While the final weeks of term often slow down with learning, they are critical for rounding off the curriculum, setting the pupils up for the next school year and resolving any issues that students have, especially those at critical phases such as going into a GCSE year.

As schools and local authorities continue to tackle these challenges, solution-led tools such as Access Education's Freedom Bundle offer the opportunity to keep everyone in the loop with areas such as curriculum plans, financial and learning management, and attendance reporting.

School leaders have limited authority in maintaining high levels of pupil attendance and possess little to no control over unauthorised absences. It is therefore essential to clearly communicate the significance of student attendance and to actively engage parents in collaborative efforts with the school.

Our parental engagement software helps schools in managing the pupil absenteeism challenge by fostering stronger connections between schools, parents and students. These include access to timetables, academic progress, and convenient payment systems for trips and activities helping schools reduce absenteeism and limit the issuance of parental fines. 

As highlighted, attendance levels can have an impact on future educational outcomes and careers, so it is vital that parents become advocates for students staying in school until the term ends.

Reducing the number of unauthorised absences in schools also requires a collaborative effort both within and beyond the classroom. While parents have access to engagement software, it is equally the responsibility of teachers to maintain pupil engagement throughout the academic year. 

Educational software enables parents and teachers to work in partnership by monitoring student progress, identifying areas where support is needed, and staying informed about key topics being taught through to the end of term and into the next phase of learning. Parents can be provided with bitesized content to help through the holidays and to ensure pupils don’t face study fatigue but encourage them to continue building their knowledge.

Intermittent pupil absence can significantly disrupt the learning environment. It may interrupt the continuity of lessons, lead to missed assessments, and reduce access to valuable learning resources, all of which can hinder academic progress and increase the need for additional support upon return to ensure students are brought up to speed.

Teachers already don’t have the resources to give additional support to students who require it, as highlighted in our School Budget Crisis Report, let alone to students who need to be caught up due to term-time holidays. 

This is where schools can lean on educational software like Access GCSEPod to bridge the gap when teachers are stretched, while using guides like the Marginal Gains Playbook to learn how to make manageable and realistic changes which improve how a school runs on a day-to-day basis. 

Although pupil absenteeism cannot be eliminated instantly, current trends indicate a gradual decline. By fostering strong collaboration between schools, parents, students, and local authorities, there is significant potential to substantially reduce unauthorised holiday-related absences in the coming academic years. 

This, in turn, could lead to a decrease in penalty fines while creating positive outcomes for schools and families alike.

Using the Department of Education’s available data for the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic years, Access Education analysed the total number of unauthorised pupil absences due to holiday at state-funded secondary schools across the East Midlands, East of England, London, North East, North West, South East, South West, West Midlands and Yorkshire.

Numbers were based on the amount of schools who are actively reporting on their attendance figures and taking into consideration the change in the number of schools and the total number of pupil enrolments.

Access Education further examined government data on parental responsibility measures to provide further context on the financial impact of unauthorised absences on families and schools.