Parents from Black Country and Staffordshire fined £300,000 for term-time trips
Nearly 5,000 fines, totalling almost £300,000, were issued to parents across the Black Country and Staffordshire in the last school year after their children took unauthorised absences.
The region's five local authorities are informed by schools of children's unauthorised absences and are allowed to issue £60 penalty notices, which can rise to £120 if not paid within three weeks.
Staffordshire and Walsall councils issued the most fines – 1,595 and 1,579 respectively. That could have brought in £95,700 and £94,740 for the authorities if all the £60 fines were paid on time.
Only 149 people in Staffordshire appealed the fines, while in Walsall that total was lower, at 78 parents.
Data from across the UK shows councils issued more than 114,000 fines to parents.
In total across Staffordshire and the Black Country, 4,879 fines were issued and 383, or eight per cent, withdrawn.
The fines were first introduced in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 in an effort to stop children taking time off school without reason.
Dudley Council issued the third most penalty notices, giving 844 of them out. Only 55 of those were withdrawn.
While Wolverhampton Council issued 645 of them and Sandwell just 216. Wolverhampton Council withdrew 95 of theirs and Sandwell six.
The information through Freedom of Information request was collected by law film Simpson Millar.
Solicitor Julie Robertson, who works for Simpson Millar, said that the figures were 'staggering' and that parents were often being punished for taking their children out of school with good reason.
She said: "What one headteacher agrees are special circumstances, another doesn't. It is a postcode lottery.
"We need more consistency and, in some areas, more common sense.
"Clearly, some schools are using their discretion appropriately where the parents are sensible in their choices and decisions.
"Others seem to be rather abundant in slapping parents with a fine regardless of the circumstances."
She added: "Being on holiday, especially for those children for whom it is a rare occasion, is both educational and hugely valuable on a number of levels.
"It seems that, in some regions, rules are all that matter.
"I can only urge headteachers to consider requests for unauthorised absence seriously, and to issue fines in the context of each child's attendance record and circumstances."
