England Schools Face New Attendance Targets

The figures underline how far schools still have to go. Before the pandemic, mainstream state schools in England were regularly above 95% attendance. Since then, schools have struggled to recover. Persistent absence has also climbed sharply, rising from about 10% in 2018/19 to 19% in 2025/26.

Absence is not falling evenly across the system. Pupils receiving free school meals and those with special educational needs and disabilities were still more likely to miss school than their peers. That means the challenge is tied not just to individual family decisions, but to wider pressures that schools cannot solve on their own.

Waugh said schools will also get more data tools over the coming year so they can track individual attendance patterns earlier and step in sooner when pupils begin drifting away. He said he wants schools to use that information to act more quickly, rather than waiting until absence becomes entrenched. He also said he would look into why illness-related absences rise so often at the end of the week.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT schools leaders’ union, said the latest numbers show how difficult it has been to bring absence back down. He said schools already do more than their share to encourage attendance, but added that government targets alone will not solve a problem rooted in illness, mental health, poverty and unmet special educational needs. He pointed to the government’s upcoming SEND reforms as part of the broader answer. The latest data also showed nearly 12% of pupils missed school in the week beginning Monday 22 June, when an exceptional heatwave affected parts of England and pushed absences to the highest level of the year. For American readers, the broader lesson is simple: when attendance slips, the damage reaches beyond classrooms and into the long-term prospects of children and communities.