School fine withdrawn!

Gaz126_2

I would like to make people aware of this as the law is imposing fines for an act committed by another person! Why? For being a natural parent! My local council sent the fine for removing my child from school. Re, school fine term time! I was livid, explaining we are separated, I did not make the application for leave, I did not remove the child from school! Councils answer, you are the natural parent, no way to contest! 21 days to pay doubling at 28 days then prosecution. Both parents being fined for the actions of one.
Question how can I prevent this - I suggest I can't, beyond my control.

Marisco

Gaz126 wrote: »

I would like to make people aware of this as the law is imposing fines for an act committed by another person! Why? For being a natural parent! My local council sent the fine for removing my child from school. Re, school fine term time! I was livid, explaining we are separated, I did not make the application for leave, I did not remove the child from school! Councils answer, you are the natural parent, no way to contest! 21 days to pay doubling at 28 days then prosecution. Both parents being fined for the actions of one.
Question how can I prevent this - I suggest I can't, beyond my control.

So are you saying you also got a fine, although you don't live with the mother and child, just because you're the dad? If so, this is outrageous!! Personally, I'd tell them to do one and take me to court, and hope they see how ridiculous this is. Or alternatively, I'd tell the mother you were knocking the fine off the CSA payments, that might make her think twice before doing it again! Either way there is no way I'd pay for something I had no control over. The bloody cheek of them!! :mad:

Better_Days

Do you have any documentation as to when you care for the child? If for example you only have your DS/DD at weekends/school holidays/evenings then it can be seen that you are not responsible.

Who is your LA? May be worth having a look on their website to see what their policy is.

Gaz126_2

Yes that's exactly what's happened! The council warned me currently this is the law - unbelievable, if it goes to court is unlikely to be overturned at county court level. I must be very naive as did not think this could be possible. Also this can happen again out of my control!!!!

Gaz126_2

Had a meeting with both, Norfolk county council and the school. They are very aware the child was not in my care but insisted it was my responsibility being 'parent' status. I will come back to this later today they have not followed their code of conduct!

fluffnutter

Penalty notices are issued to each parent with parental responsibility, I assume their argument being that care for your child is a joint venture. By all means, contest your fine. That's what courts are for but personally I think you'd do better taking this up with child's other parent for two reasons 1) You could try to persuade her to give you the £60 and far, far more importantly 2) why is your ex allowing your child to miss school and why don't you know about this/have any say in this?

I get that this is irritating and you don't feel you're responsible but you are responsible. That child's your child too and just pointing your figure at an ex and saying 'she did it' is a bit lame IMO.

You don't seem in the least bothered that your child is missing his or education only that you've been fined for it!

Marisco

fluffnutter wrote: »

Penalty notices are issued to each parent with parental responsibility, I assume their argument being that care for your child is a joint venture. By all means, contest your fine. That's what courts are for but personally I think you'd do better taking this up with child's other parent for two reasons 1) You could try to persuade her to give you the £60 and far, far more importantly 2) why is your ex allowing your child to miss school and why don't you know about this/have any say in this?

I get that this is irritating and you don't feel you're responsible but you are responsible. That child's your child too and just pointing your figure at an ex and saying 'she did it' is a bit lame IMO.

You don't seem in the least bothered that your child is missing his or education only that you've been fined for it!

How is he responsible? The mother can more or less do what she wants with the child, and doesn't have to defer to him at all. By the time he finds out the child has been taken out of school, it's too late. If the mother decides to go for a week away, and takes the child out of school for it, how exactly is he supposed to stop her?

Yes, if they have an amicable separation/divorce it might be possible to talk to her, otherwise it will be impossible.

Better_Days

It appears to be a bit of a grey area OP
This opinion maybe helpful
http://www.thelawforum.co.uk/non-resident-parents-responsibility-childs-school-attendance

As a matter of interest, how much contact do you have with the school regarding your child's education?

Gaz126_2

fluffnutter, without knowing my personal relationship with my ex partner, don't feel this suggestion makes sense as is likely to cause more unwanted animosity and affecting the child. I have not indicated whether I feel my childs education is being missed, as important or otherwise so please don't presume I don't. And I am not pointing the finger at my ex, far from it for reasons above.

Jagraf

So glad to be past this stage.

But also so glad that both myself, my ex, and my DD step-parents would never have taken Dd out of school duRing term time except in exceptional circumstances.

What a minefield!

I wonder if a child stole something which parent would be responsible then.

Auntie_Social

My husband could potentially find himself in a similar situation to the OP; we have joint residency of his 11 year old son, he “lives” with us 3 weekends out of 4 and half of all school holidays. Mum lives 50 miles away so we can’t monitor whether son is going to school on a daily basis. We recently found out that son had to miss a day at school as Mum forgot to dry his school jumper!! Another time was when she was going to a concert, so DS had to stay with his older brother for the day.

My OH calls DS every evening, and we only find out whether he has been to school when we ask “what did you do at school today?” We have estimated that he has missed around 15 days so far since September, and only 5/6 of these have been genuine (really can’t go to school) illnesses, the others have been due to Mum deciding that DS can’t go to school as he has a headache/upset stomach/sore foot which translates as “I can’t be bothered to get up and take you”. DS is driven to school as it’s a 14 mile round trip and he, for various reasons, is unable to use public transport.

If the school decides to impose the £60 fine for non-attendance (which we assume they will do if it carries on), we will also be liable for the same fine, even though we live 50 miles away and have no way to ensure that he goes to school. The current law is grossly unfair on the non-resident parent, who has no way of ensuring that their child goes to school on a daily basis, especially when, like us they live miles away.

We spoke to the school when he started in September, and asked if they would inform DH of any absences and once we had provided proof of joint residency they said they would. So far we haven’t had any communication from school regarding any of the day’s DS has not attended. We are concerned that if this carries on, he will be missing out on vital lessons, I know he has already been in trouble for not handing in homework, which he couldn’t do as he missed a lesson and didn’t understand the work set.