Closed petition Stop medical appointments counting against school attendance

We believe children shouldn’t be marked down as absent for hospital or GP appointments. These are authorised absences but still lower attendance records. We urge the Government to create a separate code so medical care doesn’t impact students’ attendance records.

More details

At the moment, hospital and GP appointments during school hours count as authorised absences, but they still lower a child’s attendance record. We believe this is unfair on children with health conditions or disabilities who need regular care. We want the Government to bring in a separate attendance code so medical appointments don’t reduce attendance percentages or make families look like they aren’t supporting education.

This petition is closed All petitions run for 6 months

2,171 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 2,171 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Show on a map the geographical breakdown of signatures by constituency

10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 25 March 2026
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.