How family trip to Florida put father at forefront over school fines legal battle

A FATHER’S determination to take a family holiday when he wanted has placed him at the forefront of a legal campaign after his High Court victory ensured that he was not fined by his local council.

Jon Platt was fined by Isle of Wight Council after he took his family on the holiday to Florida, which included a visit to Walt Disney World, without permission from his child’s school.

He was originally fined £60. This was then doubled because of his refusal to pay. The dispute went before Isle of Wight Magistrates’ Court in October last year when Mr Platt won the case. But the local authority appealed against the decision at the High Court in London in May.

Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mrs Justice Thirlwall dismissed the challenge, ruling that the magistrates had not “erred in law” when reaching their decision. The council has now been told it can appeal against the High Court judgment to the Supreme Court.

Since 2013, there has been a huge increase in the number of parents fined after the Government said that schools should only approve absences from school in exceptional circumstances. But when Mr Platt was fined he refused to pay and was taken to court.

The magistrates decided Mr Platt had “no case to answer” as no evidence had been produced to prove that his daughter – who is now aged seven and can only be referred to as M for legal reasons – had failed to attend school “regularly”. Although his daughter had been taken on an unauthorised holiday, she still had a good attendance record.

The two High Court judges ruled that the magistrates were entitled to take into account the “wider picture” of the child’s attendance record outside of the dates she was absent on the holiday. Mr Platt said taking his daughter out of school was not about the cost but rather the principle that he should not be criminalised for doing so as unauthorised absences “alone are not a crime”.