Persistent absence means an enrolment has missed 10% or more of its possible sessions. Severe absence means 50% or more. These measures show the scale of absence across a defined period. They do not explain the reason, separate authorised from unauthorised absence, prove harm or select a response. In England, use each threshold as the start of a human review.
This guide is for attendance leaders, headteachers, pastoral teams, DSLs, family-support staff and SENCos. It reflects Department for Education guidance and definitions checked on 16 August 2026. It isn't legal advice and doesn't replace local attendance or safeguarding procedures.
Read the measure before reading a cause into it
Both measures use overall absence: authorised and unauthorised missed sessions divided by possible sessions. A pupil who is severely absent is also persistently absent because the 50% band sits inside the wider 10% band. Neither label means that all the missed sessions were unauthorised.
The DfE's current Monitor your school attendance definition applies the bands after at least 20 possible sessions in the academic year to avoid unstable early displays. The accredited absence statistics use enrolment-level records and their own published cohort rules. A pupil who changes school can therefore appear as more than one enrolment in a full-year statistical release.
This is why a percentage needs its label attached. Record the source, period, population, possible sessions, missed sessions, filters and extraction date. A year-to-date MIS figure, a DfE daily-data report and a census-based full-year statistic may all be correct while showing different values. They are answering slightly different questions, which is a familiar hobby of administrative data.
Use a five-question measure card
Put these questions beside every persistent or severe absence list. The card turns a band into a review prompt without pretending that the number has supplied a story.
- What exactly was calculated? Record missed and possible sessions, the period, enrolment dates and whether leavers or other groups were filtered.
- Which records sit underneath it? Check the register codes, late changes, dual registration, temporary timetables and any missing or disputed marks through the school's authorised process.
- What remains unknown? Mark gaps plainly. The measure cannot establish health, SEND, transport, family, learning, bullying, caring or safeguarding circumstances.
- Whose evidence must be heard? Seek accessible pupil and family views, then add relevant staff or professional knowledge with provenance and appropriate access.
- Who owns the next review? Record the support, accountable role, date, evidence to collect and what would change the plan.
The percentage is also separate from legal routes. Persistent or severe absence does not by itself establish a parental offence, meet the national threshold for a penalty notice or justify an attendance contract, sanction or court action. Current statutory guidance places support and barrier removal first, with legal intervention considered through its own tests when support has not worked, has not been engaged with or is not appropriate.
Watch the question change when context arrives
The following secondary-school record is invented and combines common review issues. It describes no pupil, family, school or customer. After 48 possible sessions, eight missed sessions produce a 16.7% absence rate, so the enrolment is persistently absent. Six sessions carry an illness code and two remain unexplained while the school checks the reason.
That calculation identifies a scale and a recording task. It cannot show whether the absences share one cause or whether illness, access, anxiety, unmet need, family circumstances or something else is involved. It cannot turn the two unexplained sessions into evidence about parenting or safeguarding.
The attendance lead checks the source marks and contacts the family through their agreed channel. The pupil says morning medication has recently caused nausea and that returning after absence feels difficult because missed lesson content isn't easy to find. The SENCo confirms an existing processing adjustment, while the pastoral lead finds that no named adult owns the return-to-class check. These accounts remain attributed; they are not blended into a diagnosis.
The human question changes from “Why is attendance 83.3%?” to “What would make the next return medically safe, instructionally accessible and predictable?” The school follows its medical-conditions arrangements, checks the agreed adjustment, names the pastoral owner and sets a short review. Attendance remains one outcome to review alongside pupil and family feedback, support delivery and any clinical advice supplied through the proper route.
Keep national figures in their proper frame
The DfE's accredited full-year release for 2024/25 was published on 26 March 2026 and updated on 21 May. It covers compulsory-school-age enrolments in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England. It reported 18.14% of enrolments as persistently absent and 2.39% as severely absent.
Those figures describe the 2024/25 academic year. They are not rapid daily estimates and should not be silently combined with the separate, revisable daily-attendance series or a school's live MIS view. Use the Student Radar severe-absence research page for reproducible analysis by recorded SEN provision, including denominators and limitations. Use the governor attendance report template when the task is strategic reporting rather than pupil review.
Where Student Radar fits
Student Radar's Attendance Analytics supports trend, cohort and pupil-list review. The Heatmap lets authorised staff move from an overview into the relevant pupil context, including attendance and connected support records available to their role.
The software cannot establish a cause, diagnose need, predict future absence, determine a safeguarding threshold or choose a sanction, penalty notice or legal route. Staff remain responsible for checking source records, hearing pupils and families, applying school and local procedures, recording disagreement and reviewing support.
Close the review with an answerable record
- State the measure, denominator, period, source and extraction date.
- Separate authorised, unauthorised, unexplained and not-possible sessions.
- Record missing, disputed or recently corrected information.
- Keep pupil, family, school and professional accounts attributed.
- Name the support owner, safeguarding route where relevant and review date.
- State what the pattern cannot prove and what new evidence could change the plan.
The attendance cohort-view guide covers group analysis, while the family-contact checks help teams prepare an accessible route into the conversation. If information suggests a child may be at immediate risk, follow the school's safeguarding policy and take it to the DSL or deputy and the appropriate local or emergency route without waiting for an attendance review.
Sources and further reading
- Department for Education, Working together to improve school attendance, statutory guidance for England, updated 9 July 2026.
- Department for Education, Monitor your school attendance: user guide, live user guide checked 16 August 2026.
- Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England: academic year 2024/25, accredited official statistics published 26 March 2026 and updated 21 May 2026.
- Department for Education, Pupil absence statistics: methodology, published and updated 26 March 2026.
- UK Parliament, School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, made 28 February 2024 and in force from 19 August 2024.
- Department for Education, Mental health issues affecting a pupil's attendance: guidance for schools, guidance for England published 7 February 2023.
To review how these measures connect to source evidence and owned support, request an attendance-focused walkthrough.