What happens if my child cannot attend school and I am threatened with an Attendance Order?

If you are being threatened with an Attendance Order because of your child’s absences from school, you should write to the relevant person or department (which is likely to be the Educational Welfare Service) to explain that your child has a medical condition and this medical condition is preventing them from attending school.

You can suggest to them that serving an Attendance Order in these circumstances would be premature and inappropriate, and what is needed is co-ordinated action by support agencies to identify and make provision for all of your child’s needs.

Hopefully, once everyone involved realises that your child’s non-attendance is to do with their medical needs rather than deliberate truancy, the threat will be withdrawn.

If your local authority (LA) continues with the threat of serving an Attendance Order, or actually serves it, you can speak to with a criminal solicitor who is familiar with education cases. You should ask them if you would qualify for criminal legal aid. You could also contact Citizens Advice.