I'm very strongly on the 'everyone back to school and, therefore, work in September school of thought. The argument has been made very strongly by NJ & JD and others.
My next-door neighbour, however, has 2 autistic sons. 1 is mildly so and the other (aged 5) is severe and has to wear headphones to cut out extraneous noise etc., etc.. The younger could have kept his routine going and been in our village school (no cases there in all this time). Mum was too scared to send him. Result: small child screams and throws tantrums all day, so he will go nuts when sent back to school in Sept.. It is trying on us to hear the noise, but his dad is on the verge of walking out. Worse, the older boy (7), who would have been OK had his mum been able to do a bit of home education with him, has had zilch input from what I can gather (young one dominates) so will have lost ground hugely. He's a quiet kid and I am afraid that he will just regard inability to keep up as failure and give up.
Sorry for that divergence, I feel strongly about it. All parents should be informed that normal rules apply and if school is missed then the usual fines will be applied.
Staff should be reminded that their contracts are to teach in term-time. This has a long history to when I began teaching and teachers were paid only for the weeks they worked (leaving them free to work in the holiday periods). It was deemed convenient for the total sum to be divided into monthly payments and of course now everyone thinks we are paid for the holidays. Our contracts, however, historically understand that we will teach during term-time. Teachers will be in breach of contract if they fail to do so. Aged and vulnerable staff should, of course be considered as separate cases and arrangements made.
Gosh, that was a rant! I do care a lot about children being in school and teachers doing their duty, as I always did.