Access the Pupil attendance and absence in schools in England: data dashboard (opens in new tab) here
Data for autumn term 2025/26 relates to the period from 08 September and 20 December 2025.
The overall absence rate for the autumn term 2025/26 was 6.62%, this was an increase of 0.09 percentage points compared to the previous autumn term where it was 6.54%.
Overall absence was 4.75% in the first week of term, rising to 5.75% the following week and remaining around 6% until the week before half term, when it peaked at 7.31%. After half term, absence fell in the first two weeks to 5.93%, before gradually increasing across the remainder of the term to a peak of 8.91% in the final week (commencing 15 December 2025).
The increases seen in the latter weeks of term were mainly driven by illness-related absence, which rose from 2.79% in the week commencing 03 November 2025 to around 4.5% in the final four weeks of term.
This increase in absence is equivalent to approximately 500,000 less days in school compared to the previous autumn term. For further information on how these new estimates are calculated, see the 'Calculating days in school' section of the Pupil attendance in schools methodology.
The persistent absence rate (pupils who miss 10% or more of their possible sessions) was 19.47%, this was an increase of 0.27 percentage points compared to the previous autumn term where it was 19.20%.
Free school meals (FSM)
In the autumn term, absence rates were higher for pupils eligible for free school meals (10.29%) than those not eligible (5.11%). Compared with the previous autumn term, overall absence rates increased by 0.26 percentage points for eligible pupils, while it fell by 0.09 percentage points for non-eligible pupils.
Persistent absence followed a similar pattern. Among pupils eligible for free school meals, the persistent absence rate was 32.60%, up 0.89 percentage points compared to last autumn term. In contrast, the persistent absence rate for non-eligible pupils was 14.12%, a decrease of 0.33 percentage points compared to last autumn.
Special educational needs (SEN)
In the autumn term, absence rates were highest among pupils with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan (13.12%), than pupils with SEN support (9.59%) and pupils with no identified SEN (5.58%).
Compared with the previous autumn, absence among pupils with an EHC Plan increased slightly by 0.03 percentage points. In contrast, absence rates fell for pupils with SEN support (down 0.48 percentage points) and for those with no identified SEN (down 0.17 percentage points), driven by reductions in both authorised and unauthorised absence.
Persistent absence followed a similar pattern, with 35.61% of pupils with an EHC Plan missing 10% of more of sessions in the autumn term, compared to 28.49% of pupils with SEN support and 16.75% of pupils with no identified SEN.
Sex
In the autumn term, absence rates were slightly higher for male pupils (6.63%) than for female pupils (6.62%).
Compared with the previous autumn, absence increased for male pupils by 0.12 percentage points, driven by rises in both authorised and unauthorised absence. Absence also increased for female pupils by 0.05 percentage points, due to higher authorised absence, while unauthorised absence remained unchanged.
Persistent absence was marginally higher among male pupils, with 19.49% of males missing 10% or more of sessions, compared with 19.47% of female pupils.
Users should be aware of the following:
- The response rate may vary at certain points of the year due to different term dates. It also became mandatory for schools to share attendance data with the DfE from the start of the 2024/25 academic year, meaning the number of schools reporting may change over time.
- Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for particular days to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that the absence rate could decrease around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures from week 37 onwards will be recalculated in each publication.
From the start of the 2024/25 academic year, it became mandatory for schools to share attendance data (opens in new tab) with the DfE. If you are a school that is not already sharing your daily attendance data, you need to approve this in your Wonde portal. This will also give you, your local authority and your multi-academy trust (if applicable) access to daily attendance reports (opens in new tab) to help identify pupils needing attendance support earlier.