250 court cases over school absences
Almost 250 court cases have been taken against parents in the Southern Education authority during the past five years because their children were absent from school.
According to the Minister of Education John O’Dowd the figures for the southern region peaked in 2012/13 with 67 cases however this has dropped to just 32 in the past year.
Mr O’Dowd was responding to an Assembly Question from Alex Easton of the DUP.
The figures show that the southern education authority did not have the highest number of court cases against parents, although they were higher than Belfast and the south east region.