The Local Government Association says children who are withdrawn from school can be vulnerable without monitoring
Councils have warned that the Covid crisis could be leading to an increase in the numbers of children leaving full-time school.
The Local Government Association says much larger numbers of parents in some areas are registering their children for homeschooling, the BBC reports.
Official figures for children who are missing out of school are not available, but a previous study by the LGA found that between 250,000 and a million children do not attend, depending on how their status is defined.
Between September 2019 and September 2020 some local authorities said they saw large rises in those electing for home education, including Kent where registrations rose by almost 200 per cent and in Leeds where they rose by almost 150 per cent.
The LGA wants councils to have more money to be able to support children and extended powers to monitor them if they are withdrawn from school.
The news comes as it was revealed that one in four children in Hull are currently absent from school due to a rapid rise in coronavirus cases.
Figures seen by the Guardian show that 27.6 per cent of pupils were not in school on Monday – compared with about one in 10 across England – equating to about 12,000 children at home.