Printable
SAO timeline flowchart
A visual flowchart of the School Attendance Order process in England, from the first formal notice to resolution. Each stage has a plain-English name, a parent action and a legal citation. One landscape page, designed to stop the worry-spiral.
- Pages
- 1
- Format
- A4 PDF
- Updated
- 10 May 2026
Pairs with our guide: read the article.
A note on use
“We don’t mind what you do with it. Print it, edit it, cross out the bits that don’t fit your family. The licence is: use freely, don’t resell.”
About this template
What this template does
Most families who home educate never hear the phrase "School Attendance Order". If you are reading this page, you are probably at the sharper end of a local authority enquiry, or someone has mentioned the term and you are now imagining the worst. Either way, the process has named stages with known timelines, and you can see all of them on one page.
This flowchart lays out every stage of the SAO process in England, from the informal enquiry that usually comes first through to Section 440 (the non-compliance provision that almost nobody ever reaches). Each stage has a plain-English name, one line describing what the local authority is doing, one line describing what you can do, and the statutory citation. The point is simple: you are not in free-fall. There is a map, and you are somewhere on it.
If you already have a Section 437(1) notice (the formal letter asking you to demonstrate that your child is receiving a suitable education), the flowchart shows you exactly where you are and what the next steps look like. If you are further back, at the informal enquiry stage, you can see how far away an SAO actually is. For most families, it is very far.
For the full written guide, including a worked example of a Section 437 reply and detailed advice on what to write, see School Attendance Order or Notice to Satisfy: what now?. For responding to the earlier, less formal letter from the council, see The LA has sent me a letter: what do I do?.
Frequently asked.
- Will I definitely go through all these stages?
- No. Most families resolve the process at Section 437(1) or 437(2), long before an SAO is served. The flowchart shows every possible stage so you can see the whole map, but most parents never travel past the second or third step.
- Does the flowchart apply in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
- The flowchart covers England only. Wales has a similar process under the same statute. Scotland has no direct SAO equivalent. Northern Ireland is closer to the Welsh model. A short note on each is included in the PDF.
- Is the fifteen-day deadline a hard legal deadline?
- Section 437 gives a statutory minimum of fifteen days. In practice, many local authorities will agree to a short extension if you contact them promptly. Note the date, and contact Education Otherwise as soon as you can after opening the letter.
- What should I do right now if I have received a Section 437 notice?
- Contact Education Otherwise (educationotherwise.org) today. They handle Section 437 notices every day and will talk you through your specific letter. Do not reply until you have spoken to them.
- Can the local authority take my child for this?
- No. A School Attendance Order is an order to register at a named school. It does not give the local authority any power over your child's care. A separate safeguarding process would have to be triggered for any care involvement, and home education alone is not a safeguarding concern.
Keep reading
Companion guides from the knowledge base.
The app does this without paper
Or you can keep using the printables. Both work.
The activity log fills the year-at-a-glance sheet for you, and the council report draft writes itself from your records. The demo is real, the data is fictional.