A warning has been delivered for the “ghost children” missing from school last summer amid fears the figure has been inflated by the Covid pandemic.
Figures by the Department of Education (DoE) show more than 140,000 schoolkids were “severely absent” in the summer of last year.
It is feared the number of those who miss at least half of classes is continuing to grow.
The DoE says the term means children of school age not receiving a suitable education, either with teachers or home schooling.
Mum and journalist Terri White has shared her own concerns for youngsters missing out on a crucial part of their learning experience.
She told the BBC: “Unlike some kids, the classroom wasn't a place I was desperate to escape every day. Instead, the piles of books, stacks of paper and pots of pens were my escape. They were a portal to another world. Another life.
“They are away from school for a variety of reasons - including anxiety and mental health, special educational needs and disabilities. But, like me when I was growing up, some of the children are likely to be extremely vulnerable.
“Many of them stopped attending school during the pandemic - to never return. And now, they are not really on anyone's radar.”
Last year a report from England's Children's Commissioner said the issue of identifying where these "missing children" were was an urgent problem.
The report argued it meant vulnerable pupils could fall through the cracks and miss out on crucial support.
In the report from Dame Rachel de Souza, an audit of local authorities (LAs) revealed a “striking” lack of up-to-date data on the numbers of children in each area.
But she added tens of thousands are "persistently or severely absent or missing from education altogether".
It comes after schools across the UK suffered seemingly endless changes in learning patterns for almost two years.
At the height of the pandemic, millions were plunged into online learning as schools remained open to vulnerable pupils and children of key workers only.
Dame Rachel de Souza said: "These findings shed light on a very concerning situation: we cannot identify where each child is.
"There are thousands of children who support services do not have contact with, and authorities are therefore unable to ensure their safety, wellbeing and learning.
"This is an urgent problem that requires immediate, collaborative and practical solution."
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We work closely with schools, trusts, governing bodies, and local authorities to identify pupils who are at risk of becoming, or who are persistently absent… working together to support those children to return to regular and consistent education."
This story has been updated post-publication to reflect that the Covid pandemic is just one reason some of these children are missing from school, while the 140,000 figure purely relates to the summer of 2022
