Part-Time Timetables and Informal Exclusions: What Schools Can and Cannot Do

If a school tells you your child cannot come in tomorrow, or asks you to collect them early because of their behaviour, that is a suspension. It has to be recorded as one, put in writing with reasons, and reported to the Local Authority. Agreeing to it does not change that.

This guide covers England. It uses the statutory guidance that came into force on 26 July 2026, which is the current version. There is also an August 2024 edition, and IPSEA advises that it is the one that applies to exclusions and suspensions that took place before 26 July 2026. The substance is close, but the paragraph numbers moved between the two, so when you quote a paragraph to a school, quote the edition that was in force at the time.

Why this matters more for SEND families

Department for Education figures published on 9 July 2026, covering the 2024/25 academic year, show how unevenly this falls.

Those are rates per 100 pupils, not percentages. The DfE’s own wording is that the suspension rate for pupils with an EHC plan is “more than three times the rate for pupils with no identified SEN”, and the permanent exclusion rate more than four times. For pupils on SEN support, permanent exclusion runs at six times the rate.

None of that makes any individual decision wrong. It does mean that if this is happening to your family, you are not an outlier, and the rules below are worth knowing properly.

The phone call is the thing to watch

The statutory guidance on suspension and permanent exclusion, effective from 26 July 2026, deals with this directly.

Paragraph 18: “Telling or forcing a pupil to leave school, or not allowing them to attend school, is a suspension (if temporary) or permanent exclusion (if permanent).”

Paragraph 19 closes the “it was only half a day” argument: “Suspending a pupil for a short period of time, such as half a day, is permissible but the formal suspension process must still be followed. Each disciplinary suspension and permanent exclusion must be confirmed to the parents in writing with notice of the reasons.”

Paragraph 20: “Any exclusion of a pupil, even for short periods, must be formally recorded.”

And then the sentence that answers the question most parents actually have. Paragraph 21 lists examples of off-rolling, and one of them is:

“sending a pupil home without a formal suspension regardless of whether it occurs with the agreement of parents”

Read that last clause twice. Your agreement does not make it lawful. Most parents say yes to the phone call because they are trying to help, and because saying no feels like picking a fight. That instinct is decent and it is also how weeks of education disappear without a single record being made.

One point on how to use that quote. Paragraph 21 is a list of off-rolling examples, and it opens by describing unlawful exclusions that lead to a child’s name coming off the register. A school could try to argue the bullet only bites where the child is removed from roll. You do not need to win that argument. Paragraphs 18 to 20 already do the work on their own: not allowing your child to attend is a suspension, the formal process must still be followed even for half a day, and it must be formally recorded. Lead with those three, and use the paragraph 21 bullet to close the “but you agreed” door.

The same paragraph lists “placing a pupil on a part-time timetable for behavioural reasons” as off-rolling too. That bullet is new in the 2026 edition, but the rule underneath it is not: paragraph 30 of the August 2024 edition already said a part-time timetable “should not be used to manage a pupil’s behaviour and must only be in place for the shortest time necessary”.

Two more things paragraph 20 makes unlawful

It is unlawful to exclude a pupil “simply because they have SEN or a disability that the school feels it is unable to meet”. A school struggling to meet need is a reason to change the support, not a reason to send the child home.

It is also unlawful to exclude for “the failure of a pupil to meet specific conditions before they are reinstated, such as to attend a reintegration meeting”. If you cannot get to a meeting this week, your child’s return cannot be held hostage to it.

Part-time timetables: lawful, but narrowly

Part-time timetables are not banned. They are for exceptional circumstances, and they come with conditions.

The starting point, from the attendance guidance (statutory, last updated 9 July 2026), paragraph 65: “All pupils of compulsory school age are entitled to a full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have.”

Paragraph 66 allows an exception: “In very exceptional circumstances, where it is in a pupil’s best interests, there may be a need for a school to provide a pupil of compulsory school age with less than full-time education through a temporary part-time timetable to meet their individual needs.” It then repeats: “A part-time timetable should not be used to manage a pupil’s behaviour.”

Paragraph 67 sets four conditions. A lawful part-time timetable should:

• have the agreement of both the school and the parent the pupil normally lives with;
• have a clear ambition and be part of the pupil’s wider support, health care or reintegration plan;
• have regular review dates including the pupil and their parents, so it is only in place for the shortest time necessary;
• have “a proposed end date that takes into account the circumstances of the pupil, after which the pupil is expected to attend full-time, either at school or alternative provision”.

That fourth condition has a tail the summaries usually drop, and it matters. Paragraph 67 continues: “It can, however, be extended as part of the regular review process. In some limited cases, a pupil with a long-term health condition may require a part-time timetable for a prolonged period.”

Two extras worth knowing. If your child has an EHC plan, paragraph 69 says the school should discuss the part-time timetable with the Local Authority so the support package can be reviewed as swiftly as possible. And paragraph 70 says the absence must be recorded, normally using code X or C2.

So here is the test. A lawful part-time timetable is agreed, written into a plan, dated, reviewed with you, and driven by your child’s needs rather than their behaviour. Length alone does not decide it: for a child with a long-term health condition it can lawfully run for a long time, so long as the reviews and the end date are real. One that has quietly run since October with no end date, no review meeting and no plan behind it is a different thing, and that is the version to challenge.

The third option schools have, and its own rules

There is a third thing a school can lawfully do that is neither an exclusion nor a part-time timetable, and parents are rarely told its name. Paragraph 39: “Off-site direction is when a pupil is required to attend another education setting temporarily to improve their behaviour.” The governing board is responsible for arranging it, under section 29A of the Education Act 2002.

Paragraph 41 says it “can be full-time or a combination of part-time support in alternative provision and continued mainstream education”, so it can look, from your kitchen table, very like a part-time timetable. It is not one, and it carries its own protections:

• You must be notified in writing, and so must the Local Authority if your child has an EHC plan, as soon as practicable after the direction is made and no later than two school days before it starts (paragraph 44).
• That notice must include the address where the provision will be given, who your child reports to on the first day, how many days it is for, the reasons and objectives, and the session times (paragraph 45).
• You can ask in writing for the governing board to hold a review meeting, and it must comply as soon as reasonably practicable unless there has already been one in the previous 10 weeks (paragraph 46).
• While your child is directed to another school, the attendance register must record them using code D (paragraph 39).

If a school describes what is happening as an off-site direction, those four things are what you check. If none of them exist, it is not an off-site direction, whatever it is being called.

Who has to be told, and when

Every notification below has to happen “without delay”.

• You. The headteacher must tell you the period of the suspension and the reasons for it, and follow up in writing with your right to make representations to the governing board, how to make them, and your rights if the board has to consider reinstatement.
• The Local Authority. Paragraph 102: it “must be informed without delay of all school exclusions regardless of the length of the exclusion”. Every single one.
• The governing board. Any permanent exclusion; any suspension taking the total over five school days (or more than ten lunchtimes) in a term; and any that would make your child miss a public exam or national curriculum test.

There is also a duty that runs the other way, on you, and it is the one most guides leave out. Where a suspended or permanently excluded pupil is of compulsory school age, the headteacher must tell you the days on which you have to make sure your child is not in a public place during school hours (paragraph 85). Paragraph 86 says those are the first five school days of the suspension or permanent exclusion, or until full-time alternative provision starts or the suspension ends if that is sooner, and that the headteacher must tell you which days these are without delay and by the end of the afternoon session on the first day. It then says: “Any parent who fails to comply with this duty without reasonable justification commits an offence and may be given a fixed penalty notice or be prosecuted.” The underlying law is section 103 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. So when the letter arrives, find the dates, and if the letter does not give them, ask.

The rule that costs parents the most

When the governing board has to meet depends on how much school has been missed.

That fourth row is the one to remember. Paragraph 120: “In the absence of any representations from the parents, the governing board is not required to meet and cannot direct the reinstatement of the pupil.”

In the six to fifteen day band, silence forfeits the review. Nobody will chase you for a view. If you want the board to look at it, you have to say so, in writing.

The bottom row is worth knowing too. A short suspension does not get you a meeting and the board cannot send your child back, but paragraph 125 says the board “must consider any representations made by parents”. Your account still goes on the record, and that record is what a later meeting reads.

One hard ceiling: paragraph 6 says a pupil may be suspended “for one or more fixed periods (up to a maximum of 45 school days in a single academic year)”, and that “a suspension does not have to be for a continuous period”. If you are keeping a running total for the year, that is the number it runs against.

For a permanent exclusion where the board declines to reinstate, you have 15 school days from being told to apply for an independent review panel.

Education from day six

Longer suspensions do not mean your child sits at home with nothing.

• Suspension of more than five school days: the governing board must arrange suitable full-time education, beginning no later than the sixth school day. Consecutive suspensions count cumulatively, so this applies whether it is one long suspension or several in a row.
• Permanent exclusion: the Local Authority must arrange suitable full-time education from the sixth school day.
• Before day six: there is no statutory duty, but the guidance says the school “should take reasonable steps to set and mark work”. For a looked-after child or a child with a social worker, provision should be arranged from the first day.
• One exception: paragraph 112 says provision does not have to be arranged by the school or the Local Authority “for a pupil in the final year of compulsory education who does not have any further public examinations to sit”.

If your child is disabled

Two separate things are worth knowing together. Both of them turn on your child being disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010, which is a wider group than people expect but is not the same as having SEN.

First, the school’s duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils does not switch off because behaviour is the issue. Paragraph 70 of the exclusions guidance puts it carefully: that duty “can, in principle, apply both to the suspensions and permanent exclusions process and to the disciplinary sanctions imposed”. Part one of the same guidance gives the example directly: “if reasonable adjustments have not been made for a pupil with a disability that can manifest itself in breaches of school rules if needs are not met, a decision to exclude may be discriminatory.”

Note the “may”. Applying a behaviour policy identically to a disabled child whose behaviour arises from their disability is a proper argument to put, on two possible footings: that reasonable adjustments were not made, or that this was unfavourable treatment because of something arising from the disability, under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010. Neither is automatic. On adjustments, the question is what would have been reasonable. On the second, the school can defend its decision if it can show the treatment was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. It is an argument, not a guarantee, and it is one worth making.

Second, where the claim goes. In England a disability discrimination claim about a school goes to the First-tier Tribunal (SEND), and it is not limited to permanent exclusions: an informal exclusion, or a behaviour-driven part-time timetable, is claimable too. Paragraph 146 says claims “can be made up to six months after the discrimination is alleged to have occurred”. If you are past six months, do not assume the door has closed. Footnote 70 to that paragraph says the tribunal “has the power to consider claims after that time has passed if it considers it just and equitable to do so”.

You will still find advice online saying an exclusion discrimination claim goes to an appeal panel instead. That was the position before September 2012 and now applies only in Wales.

Your week one plan

• Keep a dated log of every time your child has been sent home, collected early, or asked not to come in. Date, time, who called, what was said. This costs you five minutes and it is the whole evidence base.
• After any phone call, send a short email the same day: “Just to confirm, you asked me to collect X at 11am today because of Y. Please confirm whether this is being recorded as a suspension.” Polite, factual, and it forces the record either way.
• If a suspension is confirmed, check the letter for the dates on which you must keep your child out of public places during school hours. If it does not say, ask for it in writing.
• If your child is on a part-time timetable, ask for the four things in writing: the reason, the plan it belongs to, the review dates, and the proposed end date.
• If a suspension totals more than five school days this term, make representations to the governing board in writing. Do not wait to be asked. If it is five days or fewer, put your account in writing anyway.
• From day six of a longer suspension, ask what education is being arranged and by whom.

Where to get free help

Every area must arrange a service providing advice and information about special educational needs and disability (Children and Families Act 2014, section 32), and the SEND Code of Practice says that advice and support “should be free”. In practice your local SENDIASS is free. IPSEA runs a free advice line, and SOS!SEN runs a free helpline in term time. Coram Children’s Legal Centre publishes free guidance on exclusions. And our free course, SCOPE, walks the school conversations lesson by lesson.

Sources: Department for Education, “Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement”, statutory guidance effective 26 July 2026, and the August 2024 edition; Department for Education, “Working together to improve school attendance”, statutory guidance, last updated 9 July 2026; Department for Education, “Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England”, published 9 July 2026; Education and Inspections Act 2006; Education Act 2002; Children and Families Act 2014; SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years; Equality Act 2010 (legislation.gov.uk).