Published on 12, July, 2020
Our 15 year old daughter has had a diagnosis of autism for a year following several years of issues, including school refusal.
After the first few days of absence, the school has started marking her absence as "unauthorised", even though nothing had changed. As a result, we are now in the council led disciplinary route (even though they don't call it that) with threats of fines etc, In our first meeting, the EWO explicitly stated that autism is not an excuse for non-attendance.
Is there any point in pushing back on her absence being classed as "unauthorised". From what I understand, unauthorised means the school believes there are no valid reasons for her absence. The school has otherwise been understanding but don't know if it would be a waste of breath pushing back on their absence classification (as that would remove the threat of fine and jail).
Help!
Many thanks all for your help and comments. We had the meeting with the council and the school. It turns out that the medical evidence (which for our daughter was anxiety as a result of her autism) they insists on only last 6 months has to be renewed. They didn't tell us this (not even when it has expired) so now have to try and get her "recertified " that her her anxiety is a reason for her not to attend. Frustrating and cause of huge amount of unnecessary stress but have suggested to school that (a) they let parents know in advance when prolonged absence will change from authorised to unauthorised and (b) they let parents know if advance when the medical evidence is about to "expire".
Thanks again all.