Many parents assume that a child’s attendance record starts afresh each September. In some ways it does: attendance percentages are usually reported for the current school year. But the way absence is recorded, shared and acted on changed significantly in 2024, and some parts of the system now look back much further than a single year.

This guide explains what is actually recorded, who can see it, and how the rules on fines use that information. It replaces some common misunderstandings, including the idea of a single national “absence tracker” for each family, with what the regulations and guidance say.

What changed in 2024

Three things came into effect on 19 August 2024:

  • New register regulations. The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 replaced the 2006 rules. All registers must now be kept electronically, and each register entry must be kept for at least six years, up from three.
  • Statutory attendance guidance. The Department for Education’s Working together to improve school attendance became statutory, which means schools, trusts and councils must have regard to it. It sets out a support-first approach.
  • A national framework for penalty notices. Fines for unauthorised absence now follow the same thresholds and amounts across England, rather than varying by council.

Alongside these, the Department for Education announced that every state school in England would share its daily attendance registers with the department, councils and trusts.

Daily attendance data: who sees what

Attendance data now flows from each school’s management information system into a Department for Education service called Monitor your school attendance. The data is collected twice a day, after the morning and afternoon registers.

Schools see their own pupils, along with comparisons against similar schools and national figures. Academy trusts see their schools, including pupil-level downloads. Councils see all schools in their area, including reports on pupils who cross council boundaries and children who have left a school but do not appear on another school’s roll.

The stated purpose is to spot patterns early: a pupil whose attendance is starting to slip, or a child who may be missing education altogether. It is a tool for schools and councils to target support. It is not a public record, and it does not issue fines automatically.

How absence is recorded

Every school day is split into two sessions, morning and afternoon, and the register is taken at the start of each. Each session gets a code. These are the ones parents most often come across:

Code Meaning Counts as
I Illness Authorised absence
C Leave of absence agreed by the school for exceptional circumstances Authorised absence
R Religious observance on a day set aside by the parent’s religious body Authorised absence
L Late, arriving before the register closes Present
U Late, arriving after the register closes Unauthorised absence
G Holiday not agreed by the school Unauthorised absence
N Reason not yet established Unauthorised absence until updated
O No reason established, or the reason given is not accepted Unauthorised absence

Code N is a placeholder. The school should try to find out why the child is absent and replace N with the correct code. If no reason is established, or the reason is not one the school can accept, N becomes O. Council guidance commonly says N should not stay on the register for more than five days.

Registers must close no more than 30 minutes after they open, and the closing time must be the same for every session. That detail matters: regular late arrival after the register closes is recorded as unauthorised absence and counts towards the threshold for a fine.

The 10-session threshold

Under the national framework, a penalty notice must be considered once a pupil has 10 sessions of unauthorised absence within a rolling period of 10 school weeks. That is the equivalent of five school days, but the sessions do not need to be consecutive or of the same type. A three-day holiday plus several late arrivals after the register has closed could reach the threshold, and the 10 weeks can run across terms and from one school year into the next.

Reaching the threshold means a fine must be considered, not that one is issued automatically. Schools and councils are expected to look at the family’s circumstances and to offer support where it would help, for example through an attendance meeting, early help or an attendance contract.

The three-year rule

The part of the system that looks back furthest is the limit on penalty notices.

  • A first penalty notice is £80 per parent, per child, if paid within 21 days, or £160 if paid within 28 days.
  • A second notice for the same child within three years is £160, with no reduced rate.
  • Each parent can receive no more than two penalty notices for the same child in a three-year period. A third offence within that time is not dealt with by a fine; instead, the council may prosecute.

This is why the record does not start afresh each September for fines. A notice issued in one school year still counts if there is a further unauthorised holiday in the next two years. Penalty notices are issued and recorded by councils, and the Department for Education publishes national totals each year: 492,800 notices were issued in 2024/25, 93% of them for family holidays.

For what happens if a case goes to court, and how the fines are calculated for families with more than one child, see our guide to term-time holidays and fines.

What this means for parents

  • Tell the school why your child is absent, on the first day. An unexplained absence starts as code N and can become unauthorised if no reason is given.
  • Watch the register closing time. Arriving after it closes is recorded as unauthorised absence, not lateness, and it counts towards the threshold.
  • Ask for leave in advance, in writing, if you believe the circumstances are exceptional. Schools cannot authorise leave after the event.
  • If attendance is becoming a problem for reasons such as anxiety or illness, raise it early. The guidance expects schools and councils to offer support before taking legal action, and that conversation is easier before the absences build up.

In my experience, most attendance worries are resolved by a conversation between parents and the school well before anything formal happens. The data now makes it more likely the school will start that conversation, which is usually a good thing.

Sources

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