Warwickshire Attendance Service - School Attendance COVID-19 Update

The DfE have issued updated attendance coding guidance this week:

Following the announcement of the move to Plan B, the DfE issued the following guidance:

09 December 2021 – Coronavirus (COVID-19) – URGENT Update to all early years, children’s social care, schools, further education and higher education providers

School attendance remains mandatory and all the usual rules continue to apply. Enabling children and young people to attend their education setting regularly continues to be a national priority. As usual, schools are able to grant leaves of absence for pupils in exceptional circumstances.

Children and young people previously considered CEV should attend their setting and should follow the same COVID-19 guidance as the rest of the population. In some circumstances, a child or young person may have received personal advice from their specialist or clinician on additional precautions to take and they should continue to follow that advice.

07 December 2021 – School Attendance Guidance

Updated 'Addendum: recording attendance in relation to coronavirus (COVID-19) during the 2021 to 2022 academic year', section 'Pupils who are a close contact of someone who has symptoms or confirmed COVID-19'.

Pupils who have been identified as a close contact of a suspected or confirmed case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, irrespective of vaccination status and age, will be contacted directly, required to self-isolate immediately and asked to book a PCR test. They will be informed by the local health protection team or NHS Test and Trace if they fall into this category and provided with details about self-isolation.

Pupils are not required to self-isolate if they live in the same household as someone with COVID-19 who is not a suspected or confirmed case of the Omicron variant, or are a close contact of someone with COVID-19 who is not a suspected or confirmed case of the Omicron variant, and any of the following apply:

• they are fully vaccinated
• they are below the age of 18 years and 6 months
• they have taken part in or are currently part of an approved COVID-19 vaccine trial
• they are not able to get vaccinated for medical reasons

Attendance Coding

From a coding perspective nothing has changed as pupils awaiting a PCR test should already be coded as X.  Once a result is known, if the pupil has COVID-19 the absence should be marked absent with the code I: illness. 

Where contact has been with the Omicron variant, and the pupil’s test result is negative.  If the local health protection team or NHS Test and Trace have asked that they continue to isolate the full required length of time, then the pupil will be marked absent with code X: not attending in circumstances relating to coronavirus (COVID-19). 

COVID-19 Attendance Advice

If you have any specific questions about COVID-19 related absence, please feel free to email the Warwickshire Attendance Service:

was@warwickshire.gov.uk

Please find here more information.