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Allow general illnesses to be a valid, authorised absence from school again.

Submitted on Sunday 27th April 2025

Rejected on Thursday 22nd May 2025

Current status: Rejected

Rejection code: local (see below for details)

Petition Action

Allow general illnesses to be a valid, authorised absence from school again.

Petition Details

Recently, ailments such as cold, flu and pain are not authorised by schools nearby as an authorised reason to be off sick. This isn’t good, as unauthorised absences can lead to parents being fined, when a child is unwell. Some illnesses are weakening enough to not go to school, this can be serious.

Additional Information

As of this school year, most schools in my area have made cold, flu, period pains etc unauthorised grounds for absence. This is unfair, as a child may not be able to concentrate in school, or physically be capable of working. They could be sickly, and unauthorised absences lead to legal action against parents, which is completely out of their control. This is unfair, as there was no warning to these changes before the school year in my area. Going into school while unwell can make you worse.


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This petition was rejected

The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:

We have to reject petitions that call for action at a local level.

You could ask your MP to take action on your concerns about this issue, including by asking them to present a public (paper) petition about this.

You can find contact details for your local MP here: members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

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