A record of more than 440,000 fines were issued to parents taking children out of school to go on holiday in the last academic year.
The figure for unauthorised holidays from schools in England was 53% more than before the pandemic.
The Department for Education confirmed that 91% of penalty notices issued were for unauthorised family holidays from the total of 487,344.
The number of penalty notices handed out by local authorities in 2018-19 – the last full year before the pandemic closed schools to most children – reached 288,000.
The newly-released figures from the DfE compare with 356,181 children on unauthorised family holiday absences in the 2022-23 academic year.
The DfE said: “The majority of penalty notices, 443,300 (91%), were issued for unauthorised family holidays.
“This is an increase of 87,100 (24%) compared to the previous year.”
The region with the highest rate of total penalty notices issued was Yorkshire and The Humber, at 10.7%, while the lowest rates of penalty notices issued were in Inner London (3.5%) and Outer London (3.4%), according to the DfE.
National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said that with holidays accounting for 91% of fines for absence it was clear that cheaper trips were a major lure.
He told the Guardian: “For many families the threat of a fine is not acting as a significant deterrent in the way the government hoped it would. This is largely due to the exorbitant charges for holidays outside of term time.
“We have long-argued that fines are a blunt tool for tackling this issue and the data appears to bear this out once again.”
The minimum fine for parents or guardians failing to ensure school attendance increased from £60 to £80 in September.