ndance’.10 To enable effective CME processes, all schools must make a ‘new pupil return11’ or a ‘deletion return12’ to the local authority when a pupil’s name is added to or deleted 2 The Education (Provision of Full-Time Education for Excluded Pupils) (England) Regulations 2007 3 Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 4 Section 437(1) of the Education Act 1996 5 Section 437(3) of the Education Act 1996 6 Section 443 of the Education Act 1996 7 Prosecution under section 444 of the Education Act 1996 and penalty notices under section 444A (as amended by section 23 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003) 8 Section 447 of the Education Act 1996 9 Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 10 See ‘Working together to improve school attendance: Statutory guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities’. 11 Returns: ‘new pupil return’ regulation 13(1)-(3) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 12 Returns: ‘deletion return’ regulation 13(4)-(6) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 7 from the school admission register (except during standard transition points unless the local authority requests it, as set out in the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. The law also allows local authority officers to access the attendance and admission registers of all types of school to carry out their functions under the Education Acts. Officers are permitted to take digital or physical extracts. Parents’ responsibilities Parents have a duty13 to ensure that their children of compulsory school age are receiving suitable full-time education. Some parents may elect to educate their children at home14 and may withdraw them from school at any time to do so, unless they are