All schools are obliged to take registration whether it is manual or electronic to enable them to identify who is and who is not at school that day. But an equally important check would be to find out where all the absent pupils are that same day.

This is often not undertaken as thoroughly as it should be. Many schools can only afford to spare the time to contact a single year group or telephone in the morning and even then only when staff are available. In some cases contact with parents is not undertaken on the first day of a pupils absence at all.

An inconsistent approach can have a knock on effect for a schools attendance figures and can impact on the welfare of the pupils. For example, in 1999, two girls from an East Sussex school went missing. The school, following procedures at the time, did not and were not expected to inform the parents that they were not in school on the first day of their absence. It was only when the parents came to collect the girls from school that the alarm was raised. The school were heavily criticised in the local and national press by the parents of the girls for not informing them sooner.

The Government at that stage decide to "strongly recommend" that schools should contact parents on the first day of a child's absence. However, some schools and unions stated at the time, that, "It is not logistically possible to always check up on the first day that children are away. Schools are already at full stretch and there aren't the spare staff to inquire after every absence."