Should schools contact the parents of absent children?

As part of an online debate, SPTC's Development Manager commented that there is no simple, foolproof way forward. Read more...

Judith Gillespie wrote:
The suggestion that Rory Blackhall would still be alive if the school had contacted his home immediately about his absence is totally unreasonable and utterly unfair.
He went missing straight after the school holiday and many youngsters would not have turned up because they had moved or were still on holiday. It takes time for school records to catch up.
The most common reason for children to be off school is illness or a medical appointment. In such cases, it is generally understood it is the parents' responsibility to tell the school; if the child is likely only to be off for one day, it is quite common to send a note with the child when they return.
With my own children, I would never phone in if they were off for one day, partly because it was usually impossible to get through to the school office, which is not a call centre and can't cope with a large volume of call.
Even when you know a child is going to be off for longer you don't always phone in immediately: you wait until you're more certain of what is wrong and how long they might be off. Meanwhile, parents tend to rely on informal messages being carried to the register teacher by their child's friends.
Schools have tried hard to be proactive about truancy and set up various automated phone systems. But it is wrong to see this as a catch-all solution which alerts parents immediately. Firstly, teachers have to take the register. Absences are collated across all classes and the names then need to be checked off by the office against lists of children whose absence is already accounted for.
Guidance staff might want to point out problems with particular families where a text alert wouldn't be appropriate.
This is all part of a process of checking which takes time - and automated systems depend on someone being able to take a call or receive a message. In this case, Rory's mother would not have been immediately available to take a call or receive a text as she was teaching a class. For automated systems to work, parents need to have mobiles with them, switched on and in range. This won't always be the case for perfectly good reasons.
I don't think there is an easy way forward. We must remember that this is an exceptional case and so high-profile because it is rare.
There are over 70 million primary pupil "arrivals at school" each year in Scotland. There is a great danger of rushing in a complicated structure on the back of a single tragedy, although I'm aware that for Rory's family this single tragedy is their whole world.
But what can happen in these cases is to concentrate on shutting one particular stable door only to leave another to open. Each school needs to look at its systems, but I don't think there is a simple foolproof answer. It's no good putting in place a system that will collapse with the first flu epidemic.
If parents are seriously worried, the burden is on them to deliver their children to school.

For more on this debate go to:
www.scotsman.com

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