PARENTS will be fined if they don’t send their children back in September.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson today warned families if they refused to let kids go then at the “extreme level” they will have to pay a fine.
Appearing on Sky News, Mr Williamson confirmed that parents had no choice but to send their kids back.
He said: “We are making schools compulsory.
“We know how important it is for our children to be going back to school.
“We’ve made it clear that it is compulsory, parents do need to be sending their children back to school.
“Ultimately if they continue to ignore the fact that their children should be in schools, if they continue to fail to work with the schools to get their children back well then at the most extreme level they could be liable to a fine.”
Speaking last month, the senior minister insisted the fines were just a sign of things getting back to normal.
He told LBC: “It is going to be compulsory for children to return back to school unless there is a very good reason, or a local spike.
“We have to get back into compulsory education, and as part of that fines sit alongside that.
“Unless there was a good reason for the absence then we would be looking at the fact that we would be imposing fines on families if they were not sending children back.”
At the moment parents are not being fined if they don’t send their kids in during the pandemic.
Only kids in reception, year one and year six have been allowed to return to the classrooms since the coronavirus outbreak, but other years can come back if there’s space.
Secondary schools in England have also been allowed to reopen for some students from Years 10, 11 and 12 since June 15.
The Government had to abandon plans to get every primary school child back in for a month before the summer.
But not all schools have reopened fully. Some do not have the staff and others do not have the space.
