Yorkshire and the Humber has some of highest school absence rates in England

The Government today announced a new package of attendance support, including personalised tools for schools that are based on real-time data showing patterns over the year.

The Department for Education said that children are 55 per cent more likely to miss school on their birthday, with a “just one day off” culture amongst parents adding up to weeks of lost learning.

Since the Covid pandemic, there has been a huge rise in unauthorised absences in schools, with the rate more than doubling across Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Government emphasised the huge impact this can have on children’s life chances, with pupils less likely to hit expected levels of reading and writing and around three times more likely to become Neet (not in education, employment or training) after school.

The DfE added that at a time when many young people are spending more time online and less time socialising face-to-face, regular school attendance plays a vital role in supporting wellbeing and belonging.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “We've seen five million more days in the classroom last year – the biggest improvement in attendance in a decade. That's real progress, but there is more to do.

“Improving attendance is everyone's responsibility.

“That's why we're giving schools better tools to identify problems early and work with families to address them, while encouraging parents to play their part in building strong attendance habits.

“By sharing what works and backing our wider reforms to make schools places where children feel they belong, want to be and can achieve and thrive, together we can ensure more children are in the classroom every day.”

It comes as, once again, Yorkshire and the Humber has some of the highest absence rates in England.

The region is behind only the North East for the overall absence rate, persistent absence rate and unauthorised absence rate in the 2025 to 2026 school year.

Overall, 7.04 per cent of teaching sessions are missed, which is a reduction from 2022’s record high of 7.7 per cent.

Roughly two-thirds of these are authorised, while the final third is unauthorised.

And almost one in five of the pupils missing teaching is persistently absent, which means they miss at least 10 per cent of their lessons.

Experts have told this paper that this will have a significant impact on these children’s life chances.

It comes after a Yorkshire Post investigation into the crisis found that a draconian approach to tackling school attendance is forcing children to often be taught at home, in what could be considered unsuitable environments.

Parents from across the region have said they felt forced to home educate as their children with autism were not given enough support, and ended up lashing out and getting excluded.

One told this paper their son “doesn't fit the system”. She added: “He has been failed in his first years."