Education Act 1944 (repealed 1.11.1996)

39 Duty of parents to secure regular attendance of registered pupils. E+W

(1) If any child of compulsory school age who is a registered pupil at a school fails to attend regularly thereat, the parent of the child shall be guilty of an offence against this section.

(2) In any proceedings for an offence against this section in respect of a child who is not a boarder at the school at which he is a registered pupil, the child shall not be deemed to have failed to attend regularly at the school by reason of his absence therefrom with leave or—

(a) at any time when he was prevented from attending by reason of sickness or any unavoidable cause;

(b) on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which his parent belongs;

(c) if the parent proves that the school at which the child is a registered pupil is not within walking distance of the child’s home, and that no suitable arrangements have been made by the local education authority either for his transport to and from the school or for boarding accommodation for him at or near the school or for enabling him to become a registered pupil at a school nearer to his home.

(3) Where in any proceedings for an offence against this section it is proved that the child has no fixed abode, paragraph (c) of the last foregoing subsection shall not apply, but if the parent proves that he is engaged in any trade or business of such a nature as to require him to travel from place to place and that the child has attended at a school at which he was a registered pupil as regularly as the nature of the trade or business of the parent permits, the parent shall be acquitted:

Provided that, in the case of a child who has attained the age of six years, the parent shall not be entitled to be acquitted under this subsection unless he proves that the child has made at least two hundred attendances during the period of twelve months ending with the date on which the proceedings were instituted.

(4) In any proceedings for an offence against this section in respect of a child who is a boarder at the school at which he is a registered pupil, the child shall be deemed to have failed to attend regularly at the school if he is absent therefrom without leave during any part of the school term at a time when he was not prevented from being present by reason of sickness or any unavoidable cause.

(5) In this section the expression “leave” in relation to any school means leave granted by any person authorised in that behalf by the . . . F1 governors or proprietor of the school, and the expression “walking distance” means, in relation to a child who has not attained the age of eight years two miles, and in the case of any other child three miles, measured by the nearest available route.

Textual Amendments

F1 Word repealed by Education Act 1980 (c. 20, SIF 41:1), s. 1(3), Sch. 1 para. 10

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 39 amended by Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948 (c. 40), s. 9

C2 S. 39 excluded (prosp.) by Children Act 1989 (c. 41, SIF 20), ss. 30(1), 36(10), 108(2)(6), Sch. 3 Part III para. 13(1), Sch. 14 para. 1(1)