While the end of the school year is scheduled for this Thursday, July 7, some parents are considering not sending their children to school next week or making them miss one or two days of class to go on vacation earlier. Do they have the right? If not, what penalties do they face?
Rare fact, this year, the summer school holidays officially begin on July 7 after class. A date, in the middle of the week, which does not suit some parents who might be tempted not to send their child(ren) to school, the latter of the class to leave earlier? Is it allowed?
Since a law of 2019, which modified Article L131-1 of the Education Code, “Education is compulsory for every child from the age of three until the age of sixteen”.
Also, a student “must attend the courses scheduled in his schedule unless he has a leave of absence”recalls the government site service-public.fr.
Authorized reasons for absence
Early departure on vacation is not one of the authorized reasons for absence from class, listed by thearticle L131-8 paragraph 2 of the education code :
- Illness of the child (or of one of his relatives if he is potentially contagious)
- Solemn family reunion (wedding, funeral, etc.)
- Impediment caused by accidental difficulty in communications
- Child following his legal representatives (travel outside school holidays)
“The other grounds are assessed by the State authority competent in matters of education” specifies the Education Code. And the Ministry of National Education to insist: “It is not possible to envisage ‘à la carte’ holidays which would disrupt the functioning of classes and harm schooling”.
Prior information
What can parents do if they want their child to miss school? The Education Code, in its regulatory part, provides for prior information at the expense of legal representatives.
“In the event of a foreseeable absence, the persons responsible for the child inform the principal or the head of the establishment beforehand and specify the reason. If there is serious doubt about the legitimacy of the reason, the school director or the head of the establishment invites the persons responsible for the child to present a request for authorization of absence which he transmits to the director. of the national education services acting on delegation from the rector of the academy”disposes thearticle R.131-5.
Social survey
Sanctions are considered “when the child has missed class without legitimate reason or valid excuses for at least four half-days in the month”. Unjustified absences following which “the principal or headteacher brings together the relevant members of the educational team” pour “to seek the origin of the student’s behavior and to propose the measures that can be taken to remedy it” indicates article R131-7 of the Education Code. “A support and support system adapted and contractualized with them”, can be offered to parents.
“The school director or the head of the establishment sends a warning to the persons responsible and reminds them of their legal obligations and the criminal penalties to which they are exposed. He can initiate a social investigation”, continues the text.
4th class fine
If the measurements listed above, “have not made it possible to put an end to the child’s absenteeism, the academic director of the national education services, acting on delegation from the rector of the academy, seizes the public prosecutor of the facts likely to constitute of the offense provided for in Article R. 624-7 of the penal code“.
This text provides for a fine of 135 euros (fine of 4e class) for the fact “not to impose on the child the obligation of school attendance without giving any legitimate reason or valid excuse or by giving inaccurate reasons for absence”.
In the the most serious casesif these unjustified absences compromise the education of the child and are assimilated to an educational deficiency of the parents, the latter incur two years’ imprisonment and a €30,000 finein the sense ofarticle 227-17 of the Penal Code.
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