The law says that you must provide your child with an ‘efficient’ education that is suited to their age, ability and aptitude while they are ‘school age’ – from five years old until they turn 16. 

You can do this by: 

If you pay for your child to go to an independent school, or choose to educate them at home, the information in this page does not apply to your child. You can find more information on our Independent schools and Home education pages. 

If your child attends a local authority school (or placement arranged by your local authority): 

Your child is considered to have ‘additional support needs’ if they need extra or different help to other children their age, for any reason. The law does not say what this support should look like because it should be based on their individual needs. Pupils might need support for many different reasons, and missing a lot of time from school can also lead to a pupil needing extra support, for example if they need help to catch up on work they have missed. 

If your child is attending school but is not engaging in their learning, this is sometimes referred to as ‘in-school absence’. This could display as the pupil appearing for registration yet not regularly attending their classes. This may be a sign of an unmet additional support need and should be recognised as the child’s needs requiring further investigation and support. 

Read more about your child’s rights to support at school on our page What the law says about additional support for learning. 

Working with your child’s school and trying to understand the barriers to your child attending school is important at an early stage. If your child is showing signs of not wanting or feeling able to attend, you can have a discussion with the school. In primary school, you could ask for a quick word with their teacher at school drop-off or pick-up. In high school you could ask for a call with their pastoral care teacher. Schools might have small suggestions for you or they might suggest a fuller meeting to discuss your concerns in further detail. 

The school should have an attendance policy in place which you can ask to see. That policy should give you some guidance on who you and your child can talk to, and the expectations your child’s school have around attendance. 

When you are calling your child’s school to report an absence, you should try and be as truthful as possible when providing the reason. This helps schools to understand why your child is off, spot any patterns with absence, and keep accurate records. The school can then use this information to know where to target supports. Attendance records can also be helpful evidence for both you and the school to show your child may need more or different support. 

Based on your understanding of your child’s needs, you can ask the school to consider strategies for supporting their attendance. Some examples include:   

Activities like breakfast clubs and other extra-curricular activities can help your child get into school and form positive experiences unrelated to the classroom environment. This can help to improve attendance.  

If you are worried about your child’s attendance, the first person you can speak to is a pastoral care staff member. At primary school, this is likely your child’s class teacher or member of the deputy/senior leadership team. In secondary school, your child should have an identified Guidance Teacher. You can find out more of the role of pastoral care/guidance staff on our page Who’s who: Communication and Wellbeing Staff.  

Other than pastoral care staff, other people who might be able to help during discussions around attendance are home-school link workers and family support services.  

If you are unsure who you need to speak to, contact your child’s school in the first instance and explain that you would like to discuss your child’s attendance. 

You can ask for a meeting with the school; your child might also be invited if it is appropriate, as they should have the opportunity to give their views on the reasons for their absence. An assessment of needs might follow this meeting to identify what is creating the barrier to your child’s education. The outcome of any assessments and plans should be shared with you. 

It is important that your views and your child’s views are taken into account when planning their learning. The school and local authority should keep in touch to find out about your child’s health and progress.

They should listen to your views and your child’s views about the support they need: 

Sometimes you and your child’s school will have different opinions about what the barriers to attendance are, and how to resolve them. If, after attempting to work together with the school, things are not improving for your child, our page Solving problems with school provides some steps you can take. 

Parent Club also have a page on Talking to your child’s school about attendance which might help you when preparing for discussions. 

Your child continues to have the right to an education even if they are not able to attend school full-time. Your child’s school should support their learning in a way that meets their needs. This might mean sending work home, accessing online learning, or attending learning in a different setting (often called ‘alternative provision’). 

Every child’s needs are unique, so there are different ways that your child might learn while they are not at school. The education they receive should support a broad, flexible curriculum that builds on their existing learning. It should suit your child’s individual needs, including consideration of their mental health. If it’s not clear how long they will be off, education should start as soon as possible. It should be in place after 15 days off in a row, or after 20 days of frequent absences. 

Often, your child’s school will take the lead by sending work home or arranging access to online learning. Your child’s school should also have procedures to record the work that they have missed while off and should communicate the details to those who support your child. 

Some local authorities have an outreach or interrupted learners’ team who can support your child while they are not at school. 

Your child should be encouraged to take part in all aspects of school life. They do not need to be attending school full-time to be included in things like school trips or discos. These types of experiences can help your child feel included and support their school attendance. 

If you are concerned about your child’s safety or support at school, it is understandable that you may want to keep them at home until the issues are resolved. However, it is important to be aware of the laws around school attendance. 

As a parent, you are responsible for ensuring that your child has access to an education while they are of ‘school age’ (from age 5 until they turn 16). This means you are responsible for supporting your child to attend school. 

By law, your child should only be off school with a ‘reasonable excuse’ so it is important to let your child’s school know the reasons why they will be off, and to try and work together with them to find a solution. If your relationship with the school has broken down, you could try contacting the local authority directly. 

If you are concerned that your child will not be safe at school, you should raise this with the school as soon as you can and explain that this is the reason why you feel that they cannot attend school.  

You might find our pages on Keeping your child safe at school and Solving problems with school helpful. 

Your child has the right to an education, and under Scottish law, they must regularly attend school while they are of ‘school age’. They are expected to attend school for the ‘recommended attendance hours’ in a regular week. These are decided by your local authority but are generally 25 hours for primary school pupils and 27.5 hours for secondary school pupils.  

Schools have a daily obligation to ensure that the children they are expecting to attend school that day are safe. If your child is expected at school and does not arrive (and you or another responsible person has not told the school that your child is going to be off), the school should make efforts to contact you and any of the child’s emergency contacts, to find the reason for absence. If they cannot reach anyone, they should let the senior school staff know, who will then decide what to do next.   

Schools cannot be complacent when it comes to reasons for absence. Their efforts to contact you are to ensure that your child’s whereabouts are known and that they are safe. 

If your child is off and the school do not know why, they may mark it as ‘unauthorised absence’ on their recording system. When a pupil has a lot of ‘unauthorised absences’ the system will automatically flag up a problem to the school or the local authority. 

The school or local authority may involve someone such as an attendance officer or home-school link worker. This person’s role would be to work with you to try and resolve any problems with the school and come up with a plan for helping your child back into school. 

In rare circumstances, schools may consider taking more formal steps if they are worried about your child’s school attendance. The Scottish Government guidance on attendance acknowledges that it is unclear if these formal steps help to support attendance and asks schools to always first try to work together with you and your child. But legally, the local authority can: 

It is rare for these steps to be taken, but it is important to know that it is possible. 

Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1: Improving Attendance in Scotland’s Schools is the Scottish Government guidance for local authorities and schools on promoting and managing school attendance. 

Parent Club has lots of general information and advice for parents and carers on supporting their children, and a specific section on school attendance. 

Education Scotland’s Parentzone has general information and advice for parents and carers on how to get the correct support for their children in school.