School Holiday Fines

Lucia1980

I cant seem to find the answer anywhere but if i take the kids on holiday in term time, were not together but will their father get fined aswell? considering were not together or living together
Thanks

unholyangel

Lucia1980 wrote: »

I cant seem to find the answer anywhere but if i take the kids on holiday in term time, were not together but will their father get fined aswell? considering were not together or living together
Thanks

Even if you were together, they could fine both of you.

Check with your local council for their rules on when they issue one etc.

Its not just limited to parents btw.

Meaning of “parent”.
(1)In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, “parent”, in relation to a child or young person, includes any person—
(a)who is not a parent of his but who has parental responsibility for him, or
(b)who has care of him,

So that could be an extended family member/foster carer, or their parents new partner.

Woolco

Hi. I would double the fines. I don't want to go abroad in June and see any or hear any children. That is why I go abroad in June.

Laurabarks

I'm in serious need of advice. After taking my children to a wedding. (Of a close family member in a foreign country) I was given a letter to say I MAY be fined. The wedding or 'holiday ' as the school call it went ahead. This was in June. Fast forward to Dec 5th when a letter lands on my doorstep asking me if I'm pleading guilty or not guilty to non payment of school fines. I was shocked. I never received the fine. Apparently there should have been two letters arrive but neither did. So the first thing I did was ring up and ask if I can pay now, to which I got a big fat no. Because my address on their evidence is mine and it was sent. I obviously can't prove i didnt recieve anything.
Has anyone managed to pay after receiving the second letter? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Any advice would be great.

foxster99

Laurabarks wrote: »

I'm in serious need of advice. After taking my children to a wedding. (Of a close family member in a foreign country) I was given a letter to say I MAY be fined. The wedding or 'holiday ' as the school call it went ahead. This was in June. Fast forward to Dec 5th when a letter lands on my doorstep asking me if I'm pleading guilty or not guilty to non payment of school fines. I was shocked. I never received the fine. Apparently there should have been two letters arrive but neither did. So the first thing I did was ring up and ask if I can pay now, to which I got a big fat no. Because my address on their evidence is mine and it was sent. I obviously can't prove i didnt recieve anything.
Has anyone managed to pay after receiving the second letter? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Any advice would be great.

Our Local Authority sends their Penalty Notice letters out recorded delivery. If your does then you won't have a leg to stand on. Even if not and they have the right address then you are unlikely to get away with it because it's too easy for people to say they didn't receive letters and yet the chance of a letter not being delivered by the PO is really really low, especially when this is two letters.
About your only chance would be if you have moved house or there are some other proveable circumstances that the mail would get lost.
Realistically though, you are stuffed and you need to face having to go to court.
What you get there depends on the previous circumstances. If you have been in trouble before over your children's attendance, such as previous fines, or low attendance (<90%) over a period of time and the judge feels you have not cooperated with attempts to remedy this then you could be hit with a fine of up to £2500 each and even three months in jail, but the latter is very rare. If this is a one-off then you may be fined a couple of hundred plus costs, maybe a total of £250-£500 each.
Note that there is very rarely a successful defence possible against these charges but if you think you do have some good reason (and lost letters are not likely to cut it) then definitely take legal advice.

Laurabarks

Our two children have 93.something % attendance. Both top of their classes academic wise. Never had any other problems.
I completely agree that saying that you didn't receive a letter is stupid. I fully intended to pay it. Anyone saying it as an excuse is stupid.
The letter we finally got was was sent first class. Not recorded. I have no idea what could have happened. I also missed a hospital appointment I knew nothing about because of not getting a letter.
I just find the inconsistencies between schools and counties highly annoying! from what I have heard from my childs school they can pick and choose the parts they want to stick to. I was told they would have accepted a day for travelling, a day for the wedding and a day to get back. Any more is a holiday. We went with other family with children in the same school . Because the school admitted to making a mistake with their form they don't face a fine.
I read cases where other were able to pay before having to go to court. All I wanted was this opportunity.

foxster99

Allowing difference between schools and between local authorities is kinda deliberate in some ways. It gives the LAs and, particularly, schools some flexibility, rather than be overly prescriptive.
This allows areas and schools with a bigger or smaller attendance problem to deal with it appropriately. However, it should be applied consistently within the LA/school.
Your school's 3 day rule for a foreign wedding is the same as ours and is fairly typical. I have dealt with a lot of cases though where people decide to make it a holiday or to visit other family, which is understandable because of the cost involved but illegal if the school doesn't authorise it.
As for paying before going to court...
You get three weeks to pay at the lower rate, then more time at the double rate and then maybe even a little leeway after that but then you've blown your chance to settle the matter out of court and have to face the consequences. They have to draw the line somewhere and once it has been handed over from the LA to law enforcement there is little chance of doing anything but going to court.
It's a pity for you that there were others at your school that seem to have avoided the fine due to some paperwork error but that's more their good luck than your bad luck, if you see what I mean.
Unfortunately you are where you are. Dress smart when you go to court, don't argue with the judge, look like you are sorry, say it has never happened before and definitely won't happen again, and they might just go easy on you and only ask that you pay the £120 plus costs.

motorguy

Woolco wrote: »

Hi. I would double the fines. I don't want to go abroad in June and see any or hear any children. That is why I go abroad in June.

+1

Love going on holiday out of season. :beer:

No uncontrolled kids running about or noisy families.

sheramber

Laurabarks wrote: »

Our two children have 93.something % attendance. Both top of their classes academic wise. Never had any other problems.
I completely agree that saying that you didn't receive a letter is stupid. I fully intended to pay it. Anyone saying it as an excuse is stupid.
The letter we finally got was was sent first class. Not recorded. I have no idea what could have happened. I also missed a hospital appointment I knew nothing about because of not getting a letter.
I just find the inconsistencies between schools and counties highly annoying! from what I have heard from my childs school they can pick and choose the parts they want to stick to. I was told they would have accepted a day for travelling, a day for the wedding and a day to get back. Any more is a holiday. We went with other family with children in the same school . Because the school admitted to making a mistake with their form they don't face a fine.
I read cases where other were able to pay before having to go to court. All I wanted was this opportunity.

Have you reported the missing post to Royal Mail so that they can investigate it.

foolofbeans

foxster99 wrote: »

Our Local Authority sends their Penalty Notice letters out recorded delivery. If your does then you won't have a leg to stand on. Even if not and they have the right address then you are unlikely to get away with it because it's too easy for people to say they didn't receive letters and yet the chance of a letter not being delivered by the PO is really really low, especially when this is two letters.
About your only chance would be if you have moved house or there are some other proveable circumstances that the mail would get lost.
Realistically though, you are stuffed and you need to face having to go to court.
What you get there depends on the previous circumstances. If you have been in trouble before over your children's attendance, such as previous fines, or low attendance (<90%) over a period of time and the judge feels you have not cooperated with attempts to remedy this then you could be hit with a fine of up to £2500 each and even three months in jail, but the latter is very rare. If this is a one-off then you may be fined a couple of hundred plus costs, maybe a total of £250-£500 each.
Note that there is very rarely a successful defence possible against these charges but if you think you do have some good reason (and lost letters are not likely to cut it) then definitely take legal advice.

The Local Authority can refer you straight to court - there is no requirement to offer parents the chance of a TPN (fine) so there may not have even been any letters sent prior to the court date.

There are only a few defences and none seem to apply in OP's case. It is highly likely that there will be a guilty verdict and this could result in a criminal conviction which could massively impact current or future employment prospects. It may be worth speaking to the Local Authority and explaining the circumstances but I agree with Foxster that OP needs to prepare for court and what may happen there. It is best to attend court as you can give a short explanation and show that you are not bad parents and this often helps to get a lesser penalty from the court.