two-week holiday to Costa Del Sol costs £447 per person in March but rockets to £991 per person in August.
Education chiefs in Walsall say they are now adopting a zero-tolerance approach to term-time holidays in a bid to stop it affecting children’s progress.
Last year, 209 fines were issued to parents for term-time holidays.
Frank Barnes, assistant managing director of Serco, the private company in charge of education, said: “There is a strong relationship between absence and attainment.”
In Dudley, cabinet member Councillor Liz Walker said: “The number of penalty-notice fines issued to parents for a child’s unauthorised leave of absence during the 2009-10 school year was 126 and for the current school year it is 162 to date.”
But fines are not so common elsewhere.
No parents in Sandwell have been fined for taking children on holidays as there have been no referrals to the education department from schools.
Wolverhampton City Council said it takes action against parents only where children are missing enough lessons for it to affect their educational attainment.
Staffordshire County Council also said holidays during term time were not individually fined. Cabinet member Liz Staples said: “Any notice issued takes into account overall attendance rates, so if holidays are within that absence, this could result in a fine.”
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