Absence for Medical Reasons: A Neglected Issue in Scottish Educational Policy

Abstract

Improving school attendance is a target for countries world-wide as part of their drive towards more effective, inclusive schools and higher pupil achievement. This article first seeks an educationally substantive, rational basis for improving school attendance among the reasons normally put forward. It then looks at how school attendance/absence in general is perceived in Scotland, as reflected in educational research, policy and practices. It concludes that ‘unauthorised’ absence has attracted more official attention than ‘authorised’, despite higher absence levels of the latter. The article then focuses on the largest single given cause of absence — medical reasons — and suggests that this issue should be disaggregated and addressed for the dual purposes both of supporting better the education of those children whose absence is inevitable, and of enabling the improved school attendance of those children who could, in terms of their health, actually attend school. Ways ahead are proposed.