PARENTS who fail to send their children to school are in the minority and school attendance is actually slowly rising year on year, Dorset experts have said.

They spoke to the Daily Echo after a Poole mum was jailed for eight weeks after magistrates heard her two children had persistently missed school.

In Borough of Poole schools, pupils were off for 95,057 half-day sessions (6.35 per cent) this spring.

Of these 80,085 were authorised absences, where the schools accepted the reasons given and there were 14,972 unauthorised absences.

Vicky Wales, head of children and young people's integrated services at the Borough of Poole, said of the court case: "In this particular case, the two pupils have missed more than a year of their education through non-attendance.

"This is damaging to their education and could potentially have a major impact on their chances for a happy and successful life in the future. We very much regret having to take this action."

Local authorities focus on pupils whose attendance falls below 80 per cent.

The education welfare service in Poole works with between 250 and 300 cases, involving home visits, individual work with young people, and working with other agencies.

A borough spokesman said attendance was improving and secondary school attendance for 2007/08 was their highest figure for secondary for 10 years, largely due to reducing persistent absence.

In Bournemouth schools, students missed 112,444 sessions (6.81 per cent) in the spring, with 13,890 sessions missed through unauthorised absence.

Cllr Malcolm Davies, cabinet member for children and families services, said: "Even one case of truancy is one too many. We have a number of initiatives in place which aim to combat the problem, including truancy patrols and working with schools and the Youth Offending Team, in addition to action planning for individual children."

In Dorset County Council schools, pupils were off for 268,599 sessions (6.11 per cent) with 29,769 unauthorised absences.

Colin Briden, principal education social worker, said: "The school authorities are getting more rigorous and questioning reasons for absence and holidays."