Meanwhile: since the government published strict new guidelines on enforcing attendance for schools
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Schools in England now send police to homes of absent pupils with threats to jail their parents
‘Heavy-handed’ crackdown ignores underlying reasons for failure to attend classes, say critics
Ellie Costello, co-founder of Square Peg, a lobbying and support group for children who don’t fit into the conventional schools model, said: “Parents have told us about very strict schools actually forcing entry to their homes. Schools are turning up with community police. They are shouting up the stairs to highly anxious children, demanding they come into school now.”
Costello said “unprecedented” numbers of families were now “fighting against a toxic, coercive attendance drive”.
