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Local authorities are being urged by the government to take more parents to court over their children's behaviour in school.

Education secretary Ruth Kelly said parenting orders would be used to ensure that parents take responsibility for their child's unruly behaviour as part of a "zero tolerance" policy on indiscipline in schools.

Kelly also announced that local education authorities would be expected to intervene in schools where Ofsted has rated behaviour as unsatisfactory and to develop action plan to rewrite their behaviour policies. Ofsted itself is to make follow-up visits within a year to schools where behaviour is rated as unsatisfactory. 

Local education authorities can already apply to the magistrates' court for a parenting order when a child has been permanently excluded from school because of bad behaviour, or has been excluded for a fixed period for the second time in a year. But local authorities in their role as "corporate parents" - looking after children through their social service departments - cannot be the subject of parenting orders.

Under the orders, parents are required to attend parenting classes and comply with other conditions set by the court such as attending meetings with the child's school or supervising the child at home. They can also be required to attend residential training.

Parents who breach parenting orders can be prosecuted and fined up to £1,000 or given a community sentence.

The government has backtracked on a previous demand that all schools accept a quota of excluded pupils by September 2005.

Ofsted's chief inspector David Bell has also drawn attention to worsening behaviour in schools, although he said that in most schools pupil behaviour was good. Bell said behaviour was unsatisfactory in 9% of secondary schools.