Did he never try to get those absences excused?
It often depends more on the school nurse than on any administrator in the school. When my daughter was in lower elementary school, the nurse refuse to accept any excuses from me, even when she was the one that refused to allow my daughter back into school - even with a doctor’s note. I finally found the “right” administrator and she was removed from that school - but not until after we were threatened with our daughter being expelled from excessive absences.