A scoping review of the research on school absences and return to school

Absence from school jeopardizes children's and adolescents' education and their social and emotional development. Proximal and distal individual, parental, familial, and environmental factors have been linked to absenteeism and the development and maintenance of school attendance problems. The complex interaction among these factors necessitates a multifactorial approach to understanding school absenteeism and attendance problems. The current paper builds on recent calls to apply bioecological systems frameworks when studying risk factors for school absenteeism and attendance problems. The Kids and Teens at School (KiTeS) Framework presented here is an application of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems model, incorporating candidate factors of particular relevance to school absenteeism and attendance problems. The current paper is also a response to the Warnock report which highlighted the need to individualize educational supports for children and adolescents with disabilities, to foster optimal educational outcomes. The KiTeS Framework is an inclusive framework, inclusive of students with and without disabilities. It is envisaged that the KiTeS Framework will provide guidance to researchers aiming to improve understanding of the factors influencing absenteeism among all school-aged students, including those from minority or vulnerable populations.

The frequent police killings during the COVID-19 pandemic forced a reckoning among Americans from all backgrounds and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement into a global force. This manuscript addresses major issues to aid practitioners in the effective treatment of African Americans via the lens of Critical Race Theory and the Bioecological Model. We place the impacts of racism on Black families in historical context and outline the sources of Black family resilience. We critique structural racism embedded in all aspects of psychology and allied fields. We provide an overview of racial socialization and related issues affecting the parenting decisions in Black families, as well as a detailed overview of impacts of structural racism on couple dynamics. Recommendations are made for engaging racial issues in therapy, providing emotional support and validation to couples and families experiencing discrimination and racial trauma, and using Black cultural strengths as therapeutic resources.

School attendance problems (SAPs) are associated with negative short- and long-term outcomes. Despite high prevalence of SAPs, there is a shortage of evidence-based interventions. Existing approaches often target either school refusal or truancy, leaving a gap in effective interventions addressing both types of SAPs. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessed the effectiveness of Back2School (B2S), a modular transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for SAPs, compared to treatment as usual (TAU). Outcomes included youths’ school attendance and mental health. A group (B2S, TAU) × time (Pre, Post, 3-Month Follow-Up) design involving 152 youths (B2S; n = 74, TAU; n = 78) with SAPs (i.e., ≥ 10% absence in the past three months), aged 6–16 years (M = 12.2, SD = 2.2, males = 60%) were used. B2S comprised three months of CBT with youths, parents, and school involvement, while TAU comprised public and/or private intervention services. On average, youths in B2S received 15.0, (SD = 3.9) hours of intervention, while those in TAU received 13.4, (SD = 21.6). Intervention effects were investigated using mixed linear models. Both B2S and TAU exhibited significant within-group improvements in school attendance, with no significant differences between them. However, the B2S group significantly outperformed TAU in reducing youths’ emotional problems, conduct problems, problems with peers, the overall impact of problems, and increasing youths self-efficacy for attending school and parent self-efficacy for dealing with a SAP. This RCT represents the first evaluation of a modular transdiagnostic CBT for youths displaying SAPs, showing significant mental health and self-efficacy benefits. (Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03459677).

School attendance problems (SAPs) are prominent amongst children and young people (CYP) in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2019b). For many CYP there are barriers to attendance: external or internal factors that make regular school attendance challenging (Ek & Erickson, 2013). It is imperative these are addressed, as SAPs have a long-term detrimental impact on CYP’s health and wellbeing, educational attainment and employment prospects (Elliot & Place, 2019; Pelligrini, 2007). Much research has focused on secondary school pupils (Elliot, 1999), despite evidence strongly suggesting the need for early identification and intervention in primary schools (Heyne, 2019). To date there has been no extensive review of the research done to address SAPs amongst primary-age children. This literature review addresses this gap, assessing intervention studies, qualitative research, correlational studies and systemic frameworks to answer the following: what does the evidence suggest is appropriate support for primary children with SAPs? This literature review found there is little high-quality experimental research focusing on supporting young children with SAPs. The sixteen articles selected during the literature search identified a range of strategies for addressing SAPs in primary-age pupils: cognitive-behavioural therapy; targeting parents; mentoring; large-scale educational initiatives; family/home relationships; peer relationships; and frameworks. The authors concluded that the strategies are a useful starting point when considering how to address the issue of SAPs in primary-age pupils. This literature review also considers implications for EP practice and identifies areas of future research.

School absenteeism in Japan has become a serious psychosocial issue over the past few decades. According to the national survey conducted annually by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology − Japan (MEXT), the number of students with school attendance problems (futoko) in compulsory education schools has been the highest since the government introduced the current data collection format in 1991. All Japanese compulsory education schools collect data on attendance and absence each day. The obtained data in each school are collected by MEXT via local education boards, which are eventually reported as annual national data. However, in recent years, data classification and interpretation of school attendance and absenteeism have become more complicated, which may constitute a limiting factor for appropriate measures for school absenteeism in Japan. The current study showed the situation of school absenteeism in Japanese compulsory education schools using the annual data reported by MEXT, and it examined matters of data classification and interpretation. The author proposed that two main categories of attendance/absence be used, namely: (a) class attendance in mainstream schools, and (b) class nonattendance in mainstream schools.

There is general consensus on the negative consequences of school non-attendance, but from an international comparative perspective, it is surprising how few studies have compared school attendance problems (SAPs) in different societies and education systems. In this article, SAPs are analysed through the lens of official statistics in four countries with different education systems: England, Japan, Germany (represented by two federal states), and Sweden. The purpose of this article is to investigate which data on school attendance and absence are available in four different countries and to facilitate a comparison between school attendance statistics and possibly different conceptualisations of SAPs. The article analyses statistics and official data collected by national school authorities and education agencies. Backgrounds within systems are provided and differences between the countries are analysed. England and Japan provide official data to the public on a regular basis, while Sweden and most federal states in Germany do not. A lower threshold for how much absence is considered problematic is found for Japan, England, and Thuringia (one of the investigated German federal states) compared to Sweden and Berlin (the other German federal state under study). Due to differences in recording and reporting school attendance, it is not possible to compare the quantitative extent of the problem or trends regarding SAPs across the four countries based on the available official school statistics.

Introduction: A link between having a neurodevelopmental disorder, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and school absenteeism, has been found in previous studies. Why ADHD poses a risk for absenteeism remains unclear, and insight into the mechanisms of the association is needed. The aim of the present study was to investigate school attendance problems (SAP) and both the symptoms related and the perceived reasons for them, as reported by adolescents with ADHD (n = 95), compared with neurotypical adolescents (n = 1,474).Method: The current study (N = 1,569) was part of the School absence in Finland-project. SAPs were measured with the Inventory of School Attendance Problems (ISAP). The ISAP questionnaire contains a symptom scale (ISAP S) and a function scale (ISAP F), which shows if and how the symptoms impacts school attendance. A linear mixed effects model was used to analyze outcomes on the ISAP factors, controlling for background variables living status, gender, other diagnoses, highest level of education for the parent and age.Results: Results show that adolescents with ADHD had been more absent from school compared to neurotypical adolescents during the prior 12-weeks. Adolescents with ADHD showed significantly more symptoms of agoraphobia/panic, problems within the family and problems with parents than neurotypical peers. The symptoms separation anxiety, agoraphobia/panic, aggression, problems within the family and problems with parents more often were perceived as the reason for SAP (ISAP F).Discussion: The results are in line with our initial hypotheses and previous studies. Because of the low response rate on the ISAP F scale, the results regarding reasons for SAPs should be interpreted with caution. Future research could examine specific preventive actions of SAPs for adolescents with ADHD, and different subtypes of ADHD.

Attending school on a regular basis and to complete school is usually seen as a precondition for academic, emotional, and social learning and development. However, some students struggle with school attendance problems (SAPs) caused by a myriad of reasons. Homeschooling is a topic of concern in long-term or problematic SAPs cases. Some scholars claim that school absenteeism might increase and be maintained during homeschooling, while others argue that homeschooling may reduce student’s anxiety associated with school attendance. Anyway, homeschooling is often an intervention for academic learning and/or as a part of gradual reintegration to school for SAP students. Moreover, homeschooling/home education/home tuition is not a new phenomenon and is an intervention for students with long-term sickness. When schools in many countries closed from the middle of March 2020 caused by the Covid-19-pandemic, all students were given homeschooling. This gave us the opportunity to investigate homeschooling more closely in a large sample. In the current study, teachers’ thoughts, and experiences of homeschooling for students with SAPs prior to the pandemic, are investigated. The main aim was to gain more insight and knowledge about homeschooling: does it work for SAP students? Practical implications of homeschooling for SAP students are discussed.

School attendance problems (SAPs) among young people in compulsory education appear to be increasing in Finland. A recent report showed that, according to school personnel, there are at minimum 4 thousand (2−3%) lower secondary students with SAPs, and the problem is perceived to be growing. To tackle SAPs, local action plans have been developed, most commonly by schools or education providers. Going forward, a key issue for schools and education providers is the way in which data on school attendance/absence is gathered and used. This paper provides and overview of the current approaches to recording, reporting, and utilizing school absenteeism data in Finland. In addition, we present the recent development work initiated to respond to identified challenges in these areas. Current challenges concerning SAPs are: (a) creating shared definitions/categories of problematic school absenteeism, (b) updating and clarifying national guidelines concerning the recording and reporting of absenteeism, (c) creating a shared systematic data collection procedure to collect local and national statistics, and (d) developing the utilisation of evidence-based practices at school and municipal levels.

Climate change has been linked to a myriad of problems related to human functioning, with a particular scientific emphasis on economic, physical damage, and health sectors. Less attention, however, has been given to the links between climate change and problems in the educational sector, such as school attendance problems, which represent practical and everyday manifestations of the effects of climate change. This is unfortunate given that children, and particularly those in Black and Brown communities and in the majority world, are expected to bear the greatest burden from climate change now and in the future. One fundamental right of children is the right to an education and to attend school, and this right is threatened particularly for vulnerable populations in different ways by climate change. Narrative synthesis of key terms (e.g., climate change, school absenteeism) for literature review was conducted to identify key patterns that produced the primary themes represented in this article: physical health, mental health, violence, school environment, school displacement and migration, and economic challenges. These themes were organized along a general proximal-to-distal spectrum. The descriptions of each theme also illustrate mechanisms connecting these issues that may help inform future mitigation efforts.

In this study, we examined government policies and the relevant law on prevention measures for school attendance problems in Japanese compulsory education schools from the perspective of school avoidance behaviour. In summary: (a) the number of students with school attendance problems has been increasing rapidly since 2017; (b) despite an increase in school counsellors as a government-initiated prevention measure, the number of students with school attendance problems has risen; (c) government policies and the relevant law seek to foster social independence even for students unable to return to school and to provide spaces where students with school attendance problems feel comfortable, which may inadvertently reinforce or perpetuate school avoidance behaviour; and (d) in the Japanese compulsory education system, stakeholders have limited opportunities to block school avoidance behaviour. We propose two measures to prevent school attendance problems drawing on a macro-level behavioural perspective: (a) employing data on class absences in mainstream schools, regardless of the reason for the absence, as an evaluation criterion for prolonged school absenteeism, and (b) implementing appropriate grade repetition for students who miss classes in their mainstream school over a certain threshold, including withholding the school diploma.

In this study, we examined government policies and the relevant law on prevention measures for school attendance problems in Japanese compulsory education schools from the perspective of school avoidance behaviour. In summary: (a) the number of students with school attendance problems has been increasing rapidly since 2017; (b) despite an increase in school counsellors as a government-initiated prevention measure, the number of students with school attendance problems has risen; (c) government policies and the relevant law seek to foster social independence even for students unable to return to school and to provide spaces where students with school attendance problems feel comfortable, which may inadvertently reinforce or perpetuate school avoidance behaviour; and (d) in the Japanese compulsory education system, stakeholders have limited opportunities to block school avoidance behaviour. We propose two measures to prevent school attendance problems drawing on a macro-level behavioural perspective: (a) employing data on class absences in mainstream schools, regardless of the reason for the absence, as an evaluation criterion for prolonged school absenteeism, and (b) implementing appropriate grade repetition for students who miss classes in their mainstream school over a certain threshold, including withholding the school diploma.

School attendance problems are highly prevalent worldwide, leading researchers to investigate many different risk factors for this population. Of considerable controversy is how internalizing behavior problems might help to distinguish different types of youth with school attendance problems. In addition, efforts are ongoing to identify the point at which children and adolescents move from appropriate school attendance to problematic school absenteeism. The present study utilized ensemble and classification and regression tree analysis to identify potential internalizing behavior risk factors among youth at different levels of school absenteeism severity (i.e., 1+%, 3+%, 5+%, 10+%). Higher levels of absenteeism were also examined on an exploratory basis. Participants included 160 youth aged 6–19 years (M = 13.7; SD = 2.9) and their families from an outpatient therapy clinic (39.4%) and community (60.6%) setting, the latter from a family court and truancy diversion program cohort. One particular item relating to lack of enjoyment was most predictive of absenteeism severity at different levels, though not among the highest levels. Other internalizing items were also predictive of various levels of absenteeism severity, but only in a negatively endorsed fashion. Internalizing symptoms of worry and fatigue tended to be endorsed higher across less severe and more severe absenteeism severity levels. A general expectation that predictors would tend to be more homogeneous at higher than lower levels of absenteeism severity was not generally supported. The results help confirm the difficulty of conceptualizing this population based on forms of behavior but may support the need for early warning sign screening for youth at risk for school attendance problems.

The present study investigated school absence among 1,076 5-15 year-old children with neurodevelopmental conditions (intellectual disability and/or autism) approximately one year following the start of COVID-19 in the UK. Parents completed an online survey indicating whether their child was absent from school during May 2021 and the reason for each absence. Multi-variable regression models investigated child, family and school variables associated with absenteeism and types of absenteeism. Qualitative data were collected on barriers and facilitators of school attendance. During May 2021, 32% of children presented with persistent absence (missing ≥ 10% of school). School refusal and absence due to ill-health were the most frequent types of absence, accounting for 37% and 22% of days missed, respectively. COVID-19 related absence accounted for just 11% of days missed. Child anxiety was associated with overall absenteeism and with days missed because of school refusal. Parent pandemic anxiety and child conduct problems were not associated with school absenteeism. Hyperactivity was associated with lower levels of absenteeism and school refusal but higher levels of school exclusion. A positive parent-teacher relationship was associated with lower levels of absenteeism, school refusal and exclusion. Child unmet need in school was the most frequently reported barrier to attendance while COVID-19 was one of the least frequently reported barriers. COVID-19 had a limited impact on school attendance problems during this period. Findings highlighted the role of child mental health in different types of absence and the likely protective role of a positive parent-teacher relationship.

Developments in Classification, Identification, and Intervention for School Refusal and Other Attendance Problems: Introduction to the Special Series