The rules governing how a pupil can be registered or deregistered from a school (placed on roll or taken off roll) are set out in regulation. This page was rewritten on August 20th 2024 to take account of the new Pupil Registration Regulations. Read more here https://edyourself.org/pupil-registration-regulations-2024/ and here https://edyourself.org/deregistration/
Being Placed on Roll
It is only a parent who can register a child with a school. The 2024 Pupil Registration Regulations express this as “person with control of a pupil’s attendance at a school”.
A child does not “become registered” at a school by the parent filling in a preference form or by a school being named on a School Attendance Order. Neither is a child is automatically on roll by the school being named on the EHCP or ordered by the SEND tribunal. Read more about the school roll and EHCPs here https://edyourself.org/special-needs-introduction/#school-named
Parents can DECLINE the school place BEFORE the child is first due to attend, rather than “deregistering”. My page on deregistration is here https://edyourself.org/deregistration/
Being Taken off Roll
Regulation 9 covers deletions from the admissions register and sets out the grounds on which a pupil’s name can be taken off roll. Schools are not allowed to remove the pupil’s name from the school roll under any other circumstances. NB this does not mean the child is obligated to attend in all circumstances. See my page on taking a child out of mainstream school for home education here https://edyourself.org/deregistration/ (including with EHCP) and for taking a child out of special school here https://edyourself.org/taking-child-out-of-special-school/
Elective Home Education
Parents taking a child out of mainstream school to home educate come under Regulation 9(1). The law does not provide for advance notification eg telling the school weeks or months ahead that the child won’t be coming back after the school holidays and in fact this can lead to problems, read more here https://edyourself.org/deregistration/#Decision
Informing the LA
Rules about informing the local authority when a pupil’s name is removed from roll are set out in Regulation 13.
Since 2016 all schools including independent schools have been required to inform their LA when they are about to delete a pupil’s name from the admission register. Schools and local authorities also have to co-operate in tracking children coming out of school when a pupil has ceased to attend and the reason is not known.
In addition, LAs now have discretionary power to require the same information about standard transition points, ie when a child of compulsory school age begins school at the start of the first year or leaves school at the end of the final year.
Off-Rolling
The term “off-rolling” does not have a unique agreed definition. It is not synonymous with illegal exclusion because some off-rolling scenarios fall within the law. FFT Education Datalab is worth reading on this.
Ofsted’s definition of offrolling is not straightforward. Ofsted defines it as “The practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without a formal, permanent exclusion or by encouraging a parent to remove their child from the school roll, when the removal is primarily in the interests of the school rather than in the best interests of the pupil.”
When Ofsted can be persuaded that the move off roll IS in the pupil’s interest (eg into alternative provision) this will NOT be categorised as off-rolling.