Indian couple in UK face court trial for taking unauthorized leave from school to see sick grandfather.

Original article in the Guardian.

A Preston couple who took their children out of school without permission to visit their sick grandfather in India were taken to court as part of the government's crackdown on term-time absence.

Shahnawaz and Sofiya Patel had asked their two sons' primary school for an authorised absence to make the trip in December, when the children's grandfather was undergoing surgery. It was the first such request the family had ever made, and the boys — Omar, 11, and Eiad, 8 — had no previous unauthorised absences. The English Martyrs Catholic primary in Preston refused.

The children's grandmother had died in a car crash three years earlier; the family did not attend the funeral and had not seen the grandfather — who survived the crash — in five years. The Patels went anyway.

"We did not want our children to miss out on potentially their only opportunity to see their grandfather in person, so we decided to take them with us," Mr. Patel said. "This was the first ever request made to the school and my children have never had any unauthorised absences. I even asked the school for work to be taken during our visit; this too was declined."

Since September 2013, English local authorities have been required to fine families for unauthorised term-time absences. Headteachers may only grant leave in "exceptional" circumstances — and the Patels were told theirs did not qualify. Four penalty notices followed, totalling £480.

Mr. Patel wrote to Lancashire county council asking it to drop the matter, explaining that his father's condition was worse than first thought and that the family was still grieving his mother's death. The council said the payment window had expired: attend Preston magistrates court or submit guilty pleas in writing. Mr. Patel, a paralegal, decided to fight the case, and wrote to the education secretary, Nicky Morgan. The Department for Education declined to intervene, saying the prosecution decision rested with the council under section 444 of the Education Act 1996.

The case captured a wider frustration. A BBC Radio 5 Live report found absence fines had risen 88% — nearly 78,000 issued in 2013/14 against 41,000 the year before. Parents complained that holiday companies inflate prices during school holidays, making travel unaffordable for many. Lancashire's cabinet member for schools, Matthew Tomlinson, said prosecution was always a last resort and that the aim was school attendance, not punishing parents. The campaign group Parents Want a Say called the case "symptomatic of the decisions some headteachers feel they have to make," with "children being treated as numbers."

Update: the Patels were later fined £650 by Preston magistrates court.