According to the report, Be Bothered! Making School Count for Young Carers, the "closed culture" in educational institutions has become a barrier to supporting young carers, who are sometimes punished by teachers that misunderstand their caring roles.
The charity said schools need to take a more proactive role in identifying and helping young carers, whose attendance, behaviour and concentration in the classroom are often affected by their caring duties.
Rhian Beynon, head of policy and campaigns at Family Action, said schools need to step up support for children.
“The report is called Be Bothered! because we think a lot of teachers and schools aren’t bothered about what’s happening outside the school gates,” she said. “That’s not the way we’re going to successfully tackle the problems with attendance and exclusion.”
A survey by the charity, which questioned more than 120 education professionals, parents and young carers, found 72 per cent of teachers did not know the number of young carers in their school and over 64 per cent were unaware of the number of young carers in their classroom.
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