突破性结果,学期间未经允许带孩子度假被罚款父母到高等法院和council打官司赢了!

大家知道,公立学校如果在学期间未经学校允许带孩子出去度假不上学要被council罚款60胖子,不按时交加到120胖子。Jon Platt去年带女儿去佛罗里达度假被罚款60涨到120,他不服气,众筹了£25000官司费把Isle of Wight Council 告上高等法院赢了官司。

他能够赢主要在于技术细节,他女儿总出勤率超过90%,这样council不能够证明他没有保证女儿正常上学。每年被罚款的有64000个案例,看起来以后很多人不怕罚款了。

Term-time holiday father wins at High Court:A father who refused to pay a £120 fine for taking his daughter on an unauthorised term-time holiday has won a High Court ruling in his favour.

Magistrates had ruled that Jon Platt had no case to answer as, overall, his daughter had attended school regularly.

Isle of Wight Council had asked the High Court to clarify whether a seven-day absence amounted to a child failing to attend regularly.

Campaigners say the case could redefine the way the law is applied in England.

Since 2013, tougher government regulations have meant head teachers can only grant leave of absence to pupils during term time in “exceptional circumstances”.

Term-time holiday: What are the rules?

According to local authority data, almost 64,000 fines were issued for unauthorised absences between September 2013 and August 2014.

Many parents complain that the cost of going away in the school holidays can be four times as much as during term time - but the government says the rules are needed because missing lessons can harm pupils’ chances of getting good qualifications.

Florida holiday

Mr Platt, 44, took his daughter to Disney World in Florida in April 2015

Her school, on the Isle of Wight, had refused permission for the trip but he took her anyway and she missed seven days of lessons.

Mr Platt was issued with a £60 fixed penalty fine.

After he missed the payment deadline, the council doubled the fine to £120 which he also refused to pay.

Isle of Wight Council then prosecuted him for failing to ensure that his daughter attended school regularly, contrary to section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996.

Mr Platt successfully argued there was no case to answer as the prosecution had failed to show that the child did not attend regularly.

Even with this and other absences, Mr Platt maintains her attendance remained above 90% - the threshold for persistent truancy defined by the Department for Education.

The magistrates heard that the girl had also been removed from school earlier in the year for an unauthorised holiday by her mother, from whom Mr Platt is divorced, so her attendance record for the year was only just above 90%.

However, the February absence was not part of the council’s case against Mr Platt.

At the magistrates’ court, Mr Platt argued that it was not a crime to remove a child from school for a holiday.

The question was whether the child had failed to attend regularly and the act does not define “regularly”.

‘Pivotal’

The magistrates asked the High Court: “Did we err in law in taking into account attendance outside of the offence dates… as particularised in the summons when determining the percentage attendance of the child?”

Mr Platt has crowdfunded £25,000 to cover legal costs.

Craig Langman, chairman of the Parents Want a Say campaign against the term-time holiday ban in England, called the court case “a pivotal moment”.



真牛!众筹25000镑,律师费用不了这么多吧?

25k不一定够。

我知道的上high court的barrister要5k一小时。

为了120花了很多k,真任性!

一般来说,赢了的话,花掉的律师费对方得赔的。不知道这个case费用怎么判的,如果是council赔,那council是白白浪费了差不多一个老师的一年工资啊。

{:5_147:} 果然官司都只是豪门夺遗产才玩得起的…

关键不是120关键是赢了这个Case以后对以后的Case都有参考作用和意义。而且Council要为难以后类似Case是不是要告不付Penalty的人。说真的一个Holiday term time出去一家可以省几百上千镑,只要不会被驱逐出校,60镑心甘情愿交了。虽然说为了holiday缺勤总感觉给孩子树立不大好的榜样。挺纠结的一个问题。

交罚款这个规定是有点脑残啊 缺勤几天就能harm pupils’ chances of getting good qualifications的结论是如何得出来的 估计这个规定早晚要改

以后学校可以出政策100%全勤奖励500镑

真的有过类似的政策,不是小学是中学,工党政府时期,给低收入家庭孩子发点钱鼓励他们上学。

英版秋菊,其实还挺期待看效应的,如楼上所说罚60棒子,但是能省千八百棒很划算呐,只是影响不太好。。。

我5年前上的COLLEGE都给满出勤的英国学生每周20英镑的奖励。鼓励他们多多来上课。

一方父母是£60, 正常的家庭是要付£120一个小孩

我知道中东的某国只要上学出勤率超过一定的百分比,每个月都有100镑的奖励。

好想知道要怎样的牛人才能做hc的barrister {:5_148:}

赞成 亮点是众筹啊

第一次听说家长同意
还需要“请”学校批准的。。。

确实是个重要判例。不过最近council很多家长的罚款单里都有投诉并且提到这个案件,可惜作用都不大,基本罚单还是照样罚。有个出勤率有93.33的孩子家长,还是照罚。家长甚至还质疑学校出勤率的计算方式有误,跟他们自己算出来的有偏差。

我觉得这个规定的初衷是防止学生经常无故缺席。现在似乎变的特别无理的一刀切,作为家长确实是十分难接受的。我都担心孩子以后开始上小学了,我们回国过年岂不是要变成一种幻想。

私校的暑假比公校早两个星期,这个问题就解决了。 {:5_137:}

我那天还在报纸上看到一个家长吐槽说:带孩子出去请假一天就被警告说会 damage her education,但是大选的时候她女儿的学校被征用为投票站放假一天就没事儿 这账应该怎么算……