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School attendance: legal requirements

Understand the rules on pupil absence, including your school's admission register and attendance register. We summarise the laws you'll need to know about, and also look at parent penalties and authorised absence.

Last reviewed on 28 January 2025See updates
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 3472
Contents
  1. Admission and attendance registers
  2. Permitted absence
  3. Penalties for parents
  4. Term-time leave
  5. Granting a leave of absence
  6. Role of governors

Admission and attendance registers

All schools are required by law to have:

  • An admission register and
  • An attendance register, which must be kept electronically

Note: schools where all pupils are boarders don't need an attendance register. 

The statutory guidance on working together to improve school attendance includes a requirement for your school to share its daily attendance data (paragraph 52).

All pupils must be placed on both registers from the beginning of the pupil's first day of attendance, regardless of their age.

School proprietors who don't comply with these regulations are guilty of an offence and can be fined.

This is set out in the attendance guidance (paragraphs 31, 205, 207 and 282).

Information required in the admission register 

The personal details of all pupils in your school Pupils' dates of admission or readmission  Details of parents/carers  Details of the last school a pupil attended, if any  For boarding schools – whether