The number of fines issued to parents for taking their children out of school to go on holiday has risen by more than 70%, new research claims.
The 34 councils across England that responded to a study by the BBC said almost 5,300 fines had been imposed during the autumn term.
The government introduced tougher regulations on term-time absence for holidays last September, prompting a debate in parliament over the issue.
BBC Breakfast made requests for information about parental fines to 76 of England’s 152 local authorities. Of these, 34 answered the specific questions in a way that made a term-on-term comparison possible.
The programme found six of those councils had not fined any parents, two had seen a decrease in parents fined, and 26 reported an increase.
Overall, the average increase for the local authorities that responded was 74%.
Liverpool City Council has seen one of the biggest increases in the number of parents fined – up from 97 in the autumn term of 2012 to 250 last autumn, according to the study.
Ron Collinson, from the council, said the tougher measures have had a dramatic effect on raising attendance rates.
“We have the best figures for the autumn term that we’ve ever had,” he said. “Part of that improvement is certainly due to this particular piece of work.”
He said he has sympathy for parents trying to cut the cost of their family holiday, but that the interests of the child have to come first.
“You save a lot of money, but you pay the cost at the other end in terms of your child’s schooling.”
Headteachers in England were previously able to grant up to 10 days of leave a year for family holidays in “special circumstances”.
But since September, they have no longer been able to grant any absence in term time except under “exceptional circumstances”.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “Poor attendance at school can have a hugely damaging effect, and children who attend school regularly are nearly four times more likely to achieve five or more good GCSEs than those who are regularly absent.
“That is why we have given schools more power to tackle poor attendance and allowed them to intervene much earlier. We are giving all schools the autonomy to set their own term dates.
“We want to see more parents asking schools to consider changes to term and holiday dates that will work for pupils and their families.”