 consecutive school days16, the pupil’s name can be removed from the admission register when the school and the local authority have failed, after jointly making reasonable enquiries, to find out the location and circumstances of the child or have succeeded but agree there are no reasonable grounds to believe that they will attend the school again. In deciding there are no reasonable grounds to believe the pupil will attend the school again both school and local authority must agree, including that there are no reasonable steps that could be taken (either jointly or separately) to secure the pupil’s attendance. Neither ground for deletion applies if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the pupil is unable to attend because of sickness or unavoidable cause. 16 A person with control of the pupil’s attendance is defined in regulation 3(2) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. This includes the pupil’s parent and the pupil if they are over compulsory school age or will be over compulsory school age on their starting day at the school. There may be a small number of cases in which this is also another person with the authority to require the pupil to attend the school, such as a governing body when requiring a pupil to attend another school to improve their behaviour (off site direction). 17 Regulations 3(2)-(5) and 8(1) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. 18 Returns: ‘attendance return’ regulation 13(7)-(8) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. 9 Schools must also arrange full-time education for excluded pupils from the sixth school day of a fixed period exclusion. This information can be found in the Exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil re