Dragør targets parents to curb high school absence

Dragør officials want parents to take more responsibility for school attendance as the municipality develops a new education policy, DR reports. Pupils in Dragør averaged 9 per cent absence in the 2024-25 school year, compared with 7.5 per cent nationally.

Henrik Kjærsvold-Niclasen, chair of the municipality’s Children, Citizens and Welfare Committee, said parents should think carefully before taking children out of school for early weekends or holidays outside the school calendar.

“Many parents forget that children miss out on lessons and on being part of a community,” he said. “As parents, we cannot just check our children in and out of school whenever it suits us.”

At Dragør School, parent Jonas Resom welcomed the idea of guidelines and said families should try to plan holidays around school breaks. Another parent, Trine Hauberg, said she believed many parents already took responsibility, but that schools should talk with families whose children have high absence to understand the reasons.

A new rule at Dragør School states that pupils whose total absence was above 7 per cent in the previous school year will generally not be granted leave outside school holidays, unless there is a particularly strong reason.

Nelle Seiersen, chair of the school’s governing board, said parents needed to take responsibility for schools to function well, but that expectations about what this entails should be clearer.

The parties behind Dragør’s 2027 budget agreement, the Conservatives, the Liberal Party, the Social Democrats and the Socialist People’s Party, have agreed that parental responsibility should be part of the new school policy. Work on the policy is due to begin at the end of the year.