Term-time holidays in Kent: the rules, the fines, and what actually happens

• A single national rule has applied since August 2024: a fine can be considered once a child has 10 or more missed sessions (5 full school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10-school-week period.
• The fine is £160 per parent, per child, reducing to £80 if you pay within 21 days.
• A second fine for the same child within a 3-year period is a flat £160, with no discount for paying early.
• Kent won't request a third fine for the same parent and child within that 3-year window. Instead, the case can move towards prosecution.
• Only the headteacher can authorise time off in term time, and a family holiday is not normally treated as an exceptional circumstance.
• Both parents can be fined separately for the same absence, if both are legally responsible for the child.

Every school day is split into two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. If your child misses a session and the school hasn't agreed to it in advance, it's recorded as unauthorised. Term-time holidays fall into this category unless the headteacher has specifically agreed to the leave beforehand.

There are some absences that are automatically treated differently, such as illness (which the school can still ask you to evidence if it goes on for a while), and days set aside for religious observance by your family's religious body. Those aren't the subject of this guide, which is specifically about unauthorised leave, most commonly term-time holidays.

Since 19 August 2024, England has used a single national framework for school attendance fines, and Kent follows it. A penalty notice can be considered once a child has built up 10 or more unauthorised sessions within a rolling 10-school-week period. That's the equivalent of 5 full school days. Those sessions don't need to be taken all at once. A few days off here, a few there, can add up to the same threshold over the course of a term.

This replaced the older system, where different councils sometimes used slightly different rules. The 10-week window is also "rolling", meaning it isn't reset neatly at the start of each term.

If your child crosses that threshold because of an unauthorised holiday or other unauthorised leave, the school can ask Kent to issue a penalty notice. The fine is:

• £160 per parent, per child, if paid within 28 days.
• Reduced to £80 per parent, per child, if paid within the first 21 days.

If this is a second penalty notice for the same parent and the same child within a rolling 3-year period, there's no discount for early payment. It's a flat £160.

Because the fine is per parent, not per family, both parents can be fined separately for the same trip if they're both legally responsible for the child, meaning a single family holiday can, in principle, result in two separate £160 fines rather than one.

If a penalty notice isn't paid, the case can be referred for prosecution under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996. Kent has said it will not issue a third penalty notice to the same parent for the same child within a 3-year period. Once that point is reached, or if earlier fines have gone unpaid, the council's next step is usually legal action rather than another fine.

If a case does go to court and results in a conviction, the fine a magistrates' court can impose is higher than a penalty notice, and in more serious or repeated cases, further consequences such as a parenting order are possible. This is a genuinely different and more serious process than receiving a penalty notice, so it's worth taking a penalty notice seriously rather than assuming it can simply be ignored a second or third time.

Yes, but it's entirely at the headteacher's discretion, and only in exceptional circumstances. Government guidance is explicit that a general want or need for a holiday, including wanting to avoid peak holiday prices, is not normally treated as an exceptional circumstance. Genuine exceptional circumstances tend to be things like a close family bereavement, a family emergency, or in some cases a parent's service in the armed forces where leave can't be taken outside term time.

If you want to ask for time off, put the request to the school in writing, in advance, and explain your specific circumstances. It's the headteacher's decision, and the council can't override it either way, so there's no separate appeal route to the council if a headteacher says no. If leave is granted, it's also the headteacher who decides how many days your child can be away for, not you.

A few points are specific to how Kent runs this process. Only a state-funded school can ask Kent to issue a penalty notice; independent and private schools aren't part of this system and set their own approach to attendance and absence. The request always has to be authorised by the headteacher before Kent will issue anything, so the school is the first and main point of contact throughout, not the council. If your family has already received two penalty notices for the same child within the rolling 3-year period, Kent will not request a third. At that stage, other options, including prosecution, come into play instead.

If you believe a penalty notice has been issued in error, for example if you think the absence should have been authorised, or the dates or session count look wrong, raise it with the school directly and promptly, since the school is the one that requested the notice in the first place. There is no separate, formal right of appeal against a penalty notice itself. Your practical options are to pay it, or not to pay it and let the case proceed towards court, where you would need to put forward a defence, such as showing the absence was in fact authorised. This isn't a step to take lightly, and if you're in that position, it's worth getting proper advice on your specific situation rather than relying on general guidance like this.

It's an understandable temptation. Term-time flights and holidays are often genuinely, sometimes dramatically, cheaper than the same trip in the school holidays. But the rules don't make an exception for cost, and a fine, or worse a fine plus the holiday itself, can easily wipe out whatever you saved by travelling in term time. If cost is the main driver, it's worth weighing the real risk (a possible £160 or £320 fine across two parents, on top of the trip) against the saving, and being honest with yourself about whether a request to the school would realistically be seen as exceptional.