Providing education for children out of school

This page provides information on your duties as a school and on local authorities to provide education for children who are out of school because of exclusion, illness or other reasons.

This guide applies to both maintained schools and academies unless otherwise stated.

When do you have a duty to provide a child who is not attending school with an education?

Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 states:

Each local education authority shall make arrangements for the provision of suitable education at school or otherwise than at school for those children of compulsory school age who, by reason of illness, exclusion from school or otherwise, may not for any period receive suitable education unless such arrangements are made for them.

Exclusions

As a school if you permanently exclude a child you do not have a duty to provide education to that child. That obligation falls on the Local Authority. You are obligated to inform the Local Authority of your decision to permanently exclude. 

If a child has been excluded for a fixed period you do have a duty to provide the child with an education from the sixth day of the exclusion onwards pertaining to Section 100 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The Department for Education recommends however that to limit disruption to the child as a school you can provide an education prior to the sixth day.

Illness

If a child at your school has proved, via confirmation from a medical or psychology professional, that they have an illness and cannot attend the school then you as a school do not have a duty to provide the child with an education when they are not in school. This duty falls upon the Local Authority. The Department for Education states a Local Authority should be ready to provide a child with alternative provision if they are going to miss more than 15 days in a school year because of illness. It is suggested that for less than 15 days it is more efficient for the school to provide the education although no duty exists to direct this.

It is important for you as a school to liaise with the Local Authority to ensure the child receives the best possible alternative provision. Having already taught the child you may be the best placed organisation to help work out what education the child might need.

Otherwise

If a child is not receiving a suitable education for reasons not related to illness or exclusion then this could fall into the “otherwise” category. A legitimate example of this could be if a parent feels their child is being bullied and no longer wishes to send the child to school in fear the child’s safety is at risk. Again as a school you do not have a duty to provide the education as the duty is on the Local Authority. However, you should be very receptive to a parent’s concerns about this and although you do not have a duty to provide a suitable education to the child it is good practice to do everything possible to help the child.

A parent whose child has been bullied may feel you have failed to protect the child and refusing to provide the child with a suitable education could exacerbate the situation and give a parent cause for a formal complaint. You could also be found to have breached your duty under Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 to promote the welfare of the child.

Unauthorised Absence

You do not have a duty to provide a child with a suitable education if that child is not attending school and no legitimate reason is being given for this. The child would receive a suitable education were the parent sending the child to school and as such the duty here falls on the parent under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996.

Direction off of the school premises to improve behaviour under S.29A Education Act 2002

If you decide to direct a child off site to improve his/her behaviour the alternative educational establishment the child has been sent to should be providing him/her with an education. However, if you utilise this power you will still have on-going obligations to the child. Please see our page on directing children off site to improve behaviour for more information.

Children over compulsory school age

For children above compulsory school age neither you nor the Local Authority has a duty to provide the child with an education. The Local Authority should encourage and assist the child in getting an education or work based training but this is not a statutory duty.

What form should the education take?

If you are providing an education to a child outside of the school then this should be on a full time basis so long as the child’s health needs permit this. Although full time is not defined the child should receive the same amount of time as they would receive in a mainstream school. This alternative educational provision should adequately meet the child’s educational needs and enable him/her to achieve good educational attainment on par with his/her peers in key subjects (English, maths, science and IT with the appropriate qualifications). The alternative provision should also identify and meet the specific personal, social and academic needs of pupils, aim to improve a pupil’s motivation and self-confidence, attendance and engagement with education, and have clearly defined objectives including future options of education, training or employment. 

For more information please see the Alternative Provision guidance from the Department for Education available here.

The school roll 

If a child cannot attend school because of health reasons you cannot remove the child from the school roll unless the school medical officer has stated that the child can no longer attend the school and the parents consent for the child to be removed. Unless both criteria have been satisfied it is unlawful to remove the child from the school roll.

Part time timetables

In exceptional circumstances a child can be placed on a temporary part-time timetable, for example, where a medical condition prevents full-time attendance. This must not be a long-term measure and it must be clear when the part-time timetable comes to an end. The absences from school as part of the part-time timetable should be treated as authorised. 

A part-time timetable must not be used as a disciplinary measure; if it is used in this way then every time that the child is not in school will count as a day or half day exclusion depending on the period of time. For more information see our page on Dealing with exclusions.

Although the obligation is on the Local Authority to provide the child with an education whilst the child is on a part-time timetable, it may be better for the child if you can provide him/her with the education whilst the child is at home. You are best placed to know what the child needs and where he/she is in their studies and to prevent disruption it is more effective for you to provide the education wherever feasible.

It is important to remember that if you decide not to provide the child with an education and they cannot attend school because of a disability then it is possible that the child’s parent could claim you are discriminating against the child by reason of his disability. As a result the parent could make a claim for disability discrimination against you pursuant to the Equality Act 2010. It could be argued that the child has been placed at a significant disadvantage by reason of his/her non-attendance at school and as a result of that non-attendance, you do not provide a suitable education further exacerbating that disadvantage.

For more information see our page on Understanding your school’s equality duties.