UK father wins legal battle over term-time Disney World trip

A FATHER has won his battle against the Isle of Wight council, which fined him for taking his family to Disney World in April 2015 without permission from his daughter’s school.

Upon their return from Florida, Jon Platt was fined £60 (€76) which was later doubled after he refused to pay, but he took his case to the Isle of Wight Magistrates’ Court and won as magistrates decided that there was no proof that the six-year-old girl had failed to attend school regularly.

However the council appealed the decision in High Court, demanding clarification on what constitutes a child attending school “regularly”.

Platt said after the High Court ruling in his favour that he was hugely relieved as he knew there was an awful lot riding on the case for hundreds of parents, and stated that he would to continue to take his children out of school for holidays when necessary.

Although the ruling may well serve as a precedent for other similar cases, the happy father did wish to clarify that parents should not remove their children at will because of it. 

The ideal scenario is to take them on holiday during term breaks, he stressed, but if that is not an option families should not have to go without.

“Just make sure that every single other day of the year you get them to school on time and they work hard and they do well,” he added.

The case has cost Mr Platt £13,000 (€16,507), yet he said it was “money well spent.”