Unexcused Absences Research Articles

Delayed school start time is associated with better sleep, mental health, and life satisfaction among residential high-school students: a prospective study.

This study examined the longer-term individual- and school-level changes in students 7 months after a 1-hour delay in school start time (SST). Two cohorts of grade 11 students (N = 227; 60.8% female, age = 17.0 [0.85]) at a residential high school in Hong Kong completed a questionnaire assessing sleep duration, insomnia symptoms, depression, anxiety, stress, and subjective well-being in 2017 and 2018, respectively. One of the cohorts was reassessed 7 months after the implementation of a delay in SST, from 07:30 am to 08:30 am (n = 83, 65.1% female). School-level data on breakfast consumption, attendance, tardiness, and health clinic visits were collected. Between-group and within-group prospective comparisons suggest that the delay in SST was associated with improved sleep duration, mental health, and life satisfaction. School-level data revealed increased breakfast consumption and decreased unexcused absences, tardiness, and clinic visits.

Unexcused Absences and Failures: Dissecting the Variability in Course Credit Policies and Freshman Course Failure

This policy analysis examines the implementation of A.C.A. 6-18-222, a statewide policy in Arkansas that addresses unexcused absences and the subsequent consequences for course credit among students. Utilizing anonymized student-level data from the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, which includes a total of 65,651 freshmen, the study investigates the variability in policy implementation across districts. It also examines the differing language used to dictate the consequences of exceeding unexcused absence thresholds. Our multivariate logistic regression models demonstrate that students eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) are notably more likely to fail a course after surpassing their district's absence threshold. Moreover, the data reveal that upon reaching this threshold, students are significantly more likely to fail core courses as opposed to non-core courses. These findings illuminate the variations in local policy implementation and their impact on student academic outcomes, emphasizing the importance of uniform policy enforcement to ensure equitable educational opportunities.

Associations of excessive internet use, sleep duration and physical activity with school absences: a cross-sectional, population-based study of adolescents in years 8 and 9

BackgroundInternet use has increased and sleep and physical activity (PA) have decreased in recent years among adolescents. Besides sleep and PA, another determinant of future health for adolescents is education....

Legal Issues 101: Implications of Attendance, Absenteeism, and Truancy in the School Setting

This article is part of Legal Issues 101, a series of topics addressing some common questions and misconceptions about the law and school health. School nurse job responsibilities differ regarding monitoring student attendance and assisting school administrators with required truancy reporting. However, all school nurses support student attendance with a focus on students being safe, healthy, and ready to learn. In this article, the authors address frequently asked questions on topics surrounding student attendance including excused and unexcused absences, truancy, parent/guardian engagement, and related laws.

Boil water alerts and their impact on the unexcused absence rate in public schools in Jackson, Mississippi

The water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, has recently made national and international headlines as a major environmental catastrophe, impacting the public health and wellbeing of residents. Here we focus on Jackson’s most prevalent and vulnerable population, its children, by assessing how boil water alerts (BWAs) disrupt student learning. Using data on BWAs collected from the City of Jackson’s Water/Sewer Business Administration Office between 2015 and 2021, daily school attendance data from Jackson’s Public School District and community-level vulnerabilities from the American Community Survey, we add an important layer to the current conversation by analysing how BWAs disrupt student learning. After adjusting for community-level vulnerabilities, we show that each time a BWA is issued, unexcused absence rates statistically significantly increase by 1–10%. We also show statistically significant decreases in unexcused absences in schools where much of the student body receives free and reduced lunches. In a city that releases hundreds of BWAs each year, our findings highlight the urgency for addressing the root causes of the poor water quality in Jackson.

Unexcused absence from physical education in elementary school. On the role of autonomous motivation and body image factors

Physical education (PE) is an essential school subject due to its potential to promote well-being and health in all children. Yet, PE stands out among other subjects in terms of truancy. This study is one of the first to examine if unexcused absence from PE is associated with early adolescents' body image and autonomous motivation towards PE. A total of 526 Swedish 6th graders (Mage = 12.28, SD = 0.31) reported the frequency of unexcused absence from PE and answered questions about aesthetic and functional body image, social physique anxiety, and autonomous motivation. Findings showed that unexcused absence from PE was associated with less autonomous motivation and higher social physique anxiety. Participants who had never been absent reported higher functional body image investment and satisfaction. Analyses showed that whereas the aesthetic aspects of body image were associated with decreased autonomous motivation toward PE, functional aspects predicted higher autonomous motivation. The study sheds novel light on the links between absence from PE, body image, and autonomous motivation. As absence may have real-life practical effects for school achievement, health, and well-being, the findings demonstrate the importance of mitigating social physique anxiety and promoting an inclusive and body positive PE context early on.

The Dynamic Effects of a Summer Learning Program on Behavioral Engagement in School

Abstract Evidence that student learning declines or stagnates during summers has motivated an interest in programs providing intensive summer instruction. However, existing literature suggests that such programs have modest effects on achievement and no impact on measures of engagement in school. In this quasi-experimental study, we present evidence on the impact of a comprehensive and mature summer learning program that serves low-income middle school students and features unusual academic breadth, including a robust and well-designed social-emotional learning curriculum. Our results indicate that this program led to substantial reductions in unexcused absences, chronic absenteeism, and suspensions and a modest gain in English language arts test scores. We find evidence that the gains in behavioral engagement are dynamic, growing over time and with additional summers of participation.

'She didn't know how to go back': School attendance problems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic-A multiple stakeholder qualitative study with parents and professionals.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in school closures worldwide and unexcused absences have increased since schools reopened. Drawing on multiple stakeholders' perspectives, we aimed to (i) develop a detailed understanding of how school attendance problems (SAPs) have manifested for primary school-aged children in the context of COVID-19; and (ii) identify promising community-based intervention strategies. We used a qualitative design with two sequential phases of data collection. Phase 1 involved insight generation using qualitative surveys with parents and professionals working in primary education settings. These results were used to guide in-depth stakeholder interviews in Phase 2. Phase 1 included 29 parents of primary-school children experiencing SAPs and 19 professionals. Phase 2 included 10 parents and 12 professionals. Parents were recruited through social media; professionals were identified through schools and associated networks in Southern England. Attendance was particularly challenging for children with special educational needs and pre-existing anxiety problems. Compounding factors included COVID-related anxiety, difficulties adapting to new school routines, poor home-school communication and collaboration, and concerns about academic catch-up. Effective support was characterized by schools and families working closely together. Recommendations for practice improvements centred on early intervention, re-building parent-school relationships, peer support for parents, and improving special educational provision. New interventions for SAPs must be sensitive to the ongoing COVID-19 context. Help should be easily accessible in the community and address modifiable risk and protective factors for individual children, in family systems, and at the home-school interface.

Potential Moderators of Academic Stress-Related Internalizing Problems Among Chinese High Schoolers: A Systematic Review from the Biopsychosocial Perspective

ABSTRACT Purpose This systematic review aims to identify potential moderators of academic stress and internalizing problems among high-school students in mainland China and to facilitate future research and interventions. Method The initial search identified 3875 publications, including 34 that met the inclusion criteria. We identified 19 potential moderators in total. Results According to the ranking system based on the frequency and weight of each moderator, personal relationships, gender, grades, family relationships, school climate, and resilience are identified as the most important moderators of academic stress and internalizing problems among Chinese high schoolers. Discussion The biopsychosocial model was used to explain the top moderators. Future interventions include increasing physical activities and sleep time, providing monthly unexcused absence for girls, hiring more school-based psychotherapist, providing more psychology classes, generalizing mandated report system in China, and providing financial supports for students from low-income families.

Challenging the Core Assumption of Chronic Absenteeism: Are Excused and Unexcused Absences Equally Useful in Determining Academic Risk Status?

In response to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (2015), 36 U.S. states have adopted chronic absenteeism as an indicator of school quality and student success. It is also being increasingly utilized within schools to identify students at risk for future educational problems, as research consistently shows that early absences are related to later achievement issues. By leveraging readily available attendance records, schools can identify students at risk of poor outcomes early in their educational lives and provide them with supports before challenges worsen. Despite its pervasive use, major theoretical assumptions underlying this indicator have never been validated. The current study represents the first empirical test of the most basic assumption of chronic absenteeism—that all absences from school are equally useful in providing diagnostic information to determine future risk status. To test the diagnostic utility of different absence types across the early elementary grades, this study employed ROC analyses with administrative data from a large, urban school district. Findings indicate that only unexcused absences provide diagnostic accuracy in determining future achievement status in the early elementary grades, whereas excused absences provide no diagnostic accuracy and actually dampen the ability of unexcused absences to determine students’ achievement risk status when used in conjunction with them. These results have implications for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners and necessitate additional empirical studies that test the underlying assumptions of chronic absenteeism to ensure that it is being used both effectively and ethically in the early identification of at-risk students.

The Signaling Power of Unexcused Absence from School

State and national school accountability policies situate preventing chronic absenteeism on par with meeting state standardized test benchmarks. We question relying on school attendance as both a component of accountability policies and a means of enhancing equity in schools. Our research suggests out-of-school factors unrelated to missed instruction account for most of the associations between absences and test score achievement—with unexcused absences driving those associations. Excessive absences—and particularly unexcused absences—don’t harm students mainly through missed instruction. Instead, they reflect out-of-school harms students endure that have produced inequalities for years—and will continue to do so even if students show up or parents call in.

The Impact of Scholastic Factors on Physical Activity Levels during the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Prospective Study on Adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Scholastic factors (academic achievement) are hypothesized to be important determinants of health-related behaviors in adolescents, but there is a lack of knowledge on their influence on physical activity levels (PAL), especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposed lockdown. This study aimed to investigate the associations between scholastic factors and PAL before and during the pandemic lockdown. The participants were adolescents form Bosnia and Herzegovina (n = 525, 46% females), who were observed prospectively at the baseline (before the pandemic lockdown) and during the lockdown in 2020 (follow-up). The scholastic factors (grade point average, behavioral grade, school absences, unexcused absences) were evidenced at the baseline (predictors). The outcome (PAL) was evaluated using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents at the baseline and the follow-up. Gender, age, parental/familial conflict, and sport participation were observed as confounders. No significant influence of the predictors on PAL were evidenced at the baseline or at the follow-up. The scholastic variables were significantly associated with the changes of PAL which occurred due to pandemic lockdown, with a lower risk for negative changes in PAL among adolescents who were better in school (OR = 0.56, 95%CI: 0.34–0.81, and OR = 0.66, 95%CI: 0.34–0.97, for the grade point average and behavioral grade, respectively). Students who do well in school are probably more aware of the health benefits of proper PAL, and therefore are devoted to the maintenance of their PAL even during the home-confinement of lockdown. Public health authorities should focus more on helping adolescents to understand the importance and benefits of proper PAL throughout the school system.

Labour Migration of Parents and Threats to Children and Youth

Labour migration is a global trend that shapes communities and economies around the world. Growing economic migration carries a specific threat to children and youth. Long-term consequences threaten life outcomes such as educational achievement, career development, mental and physical health. The study examined the problems of children from migrating families in educational institutions. It was also important to determine what assistance is provided to children from migrant families and what institutions support such families. The respondents were class tutors/educators who were teachers of educational institutions: 2317 respondents took part in the study, including 2044 women and 273 men. Significant differentiation of the respondents according to gender is mainly due to the feminization of the teaching profession in Poland. The results of the survey were analyzed with the chi-square test of independence. As a result of the research, threats to children and adolescents resulting from the economic migration of parents were diagnosed. In secondary schools, a decrease in attendance is observed (unexcused absences, truancy, being late). In lower secondary schools there are problems with school results and a decrease in motivation to learn. Educational institutions find it difficult to stay in contact with parents. In the youngest children (kindergartens, primary schools), emotional instability is observed due to the absence of parents in everyday contact. Educational institutions respond to diagnosed problems by providing support to students. In primary schools, students are provided with help in learning and students’ free time is organized. There are also activities aimed at providing additional nutrition. In lower secondary schools, as in secondary schools, support focuses more on motivational interviewing, mediation in conflict situations and psychological assistance. In order to solve problems and help students, educational institutions cooperate with the Psychological and Pedagogical Counselling Centre, the Social Welfare Centre and the Probation Officer.

Do High School Students With a Same-Race Teacher Attend Class More Often?

Teachers of color increase school success for students of color. Yet, little attention has been paid to whether school attendance behaviors also increase from same race and ethnicity matches. To address this, our study used administrative data provided by a California high school district for the school years 2014 to 2018. We explored student absenteeism at the date and class period levels. Using this rich, longitudinal data set, we employed grade, school, class period, student, and date fixed effects models to examine the association between student–teacher matches and student absenteeism. Student–teacher race and ethnicity matches were associated with fewer unexcused absences for Latinx students. The results also indicate that associations were strongest for Latinx students in 11th and 12th grades—the age group in K–12 that has the most individual agency when it comes to getting to school. Furthermore, we found no evidence of declines in excused absences, which reflect health.

Investigating the Impact of Generation Citizen’s Action Civics Education Program on Student Academic Engagement

Student-centered, project-based, guided experiential civics education approaches, like action civics, may have benefits for general academic outcomes. Action civics programs provide applied settings for learning civics: students work together in groups to take action on a local issue. To the best of our knowledge, we conducted the first quasi-experimental evaluation of the impact of a school-based action civics intervention, Generation Citizen (GC), on academic engagement. Exposure to GC was associated with increased participation in non-GC classes and there was no statistically significant effect on unexcused absences. Oftentimes, schools deprioritize civics education due to limited resources and/or focusing on other subjects; our findings suggest that action civics education may have useful, generalized spillover benefits for student academic engagement.

The effect of a middle grades STEM initiative on students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes

This study is an evaluation of a STEM initiative in one school district with five participating middle schools. I used two quasi-experimental methods including instrumental variables and inverse propensity score weights to test the effect of the initiative on students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. Overall, students at STEM schools demonstrated lower science achievement (p < .05). Subgroup analyses showed that Limited English Proficient students at STEM schools demonstrated increased reading achievement and fewer unexcused absences (p < .001). Black students demonstrated increased grit (p < .01), and Hispanic students demonstrated increased control and relevance in learning (p < .001).

Economic Consequences of Not Attending Business Classes

This paper presents three years of empirical research showing the most significant impediments to business major students’ success is unexcused absences). This student misconduct results in squandered opportunities for learning, and squanders: 1) tuition paid by students and parents, 2) lost scholarships earned, 3) student loans acquired, and 4) state subsidies. To the extent this phenomenon magnifies across higher education, it contributes significantly to the national concerns about high tuition costs and the $1.5 trillion student loan debt). By recognizing these economic factors university administrators can develop effective academic policies that ensure students attend classes. Some potential solutions are offered.

Adolescent Adversity, School Attendance and Academic Achievement: School Connection and the Potential for Mitigating Risk.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may be particularly impactful for the learning environment. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between ACEs and 3 education-related outcomes, no plan to graduate, past month unexcused absences, and low academic achievement, outcomes linked to poor prospects for future social status attainment and by extension, health. Data are from 9th and 11th grade participants in the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey (N=81,885). Logistic regression was used to determine if individual and cumulative measures for 10 types of ACEs were significantly associated with education-related outcomes in analytic models adjusting for demographic and individual factors. Final analytic models tested for moderation of relationships between ACEs and adverse education outcomes by student school connection. Analyses were stratified by sex. Multiple types of ACEs were significantly associated with each adverse education outcome. Relationships between some types of ACEs and education outcomes were marginally attenuated by school connection. Among high school students, experiences of adversity were significantly associated with scholastic outcomes that portend limited prospects for health and status attainment in adulthood. Strategies for strengthening student school connection may be relevant for supporting youth resilience, and the potential for better stability in adulthood.

A Change in the Frame: From Absenteeism to Attendance

School attendance is important for student long-term academic and career success. However, in the U.S., our current practice often disenfranchises more at-risk students than it helps. Students slated for suspension and expulsion are often recipients of these practices. This manuscript offers a recommended change in how we frame student absenteeism and attendance using attendance markers and conceptual information by identifying the discrepancies, proposing options, and recommending a new way to actively leverage attendance data (not absenteeism data) for proactive student support. Particular attention is paid to how excused and unexcused absences and in-school suspensions are treated. An emerging pivot program, the Evaluation and Support Program, engages students while they receive school services, community support, and complete consequences is discussed as a possible, promising intervention.

A Validation Trajectory for the Washington Assessment of Risks and Needs of Students

ABSTRACTThe State of Washington requires school districts to file court petitions on students with excessive unexcused absences. The Washington Assessment of Risks and Needs of Students (WARNS), a self-report screening instrument developed for use by high school and juvenile court personnel in such situations, purports to measure six facets of risks and needs of youth relevant to improving school and life outcomes. Many psychometric analyses have been documented either in the technical manual or through peer-reviewed publications. We review this body of evidence in the context of a central claim about score interpretation/use and the inferences that underlie that claim. Such evidence is strong for inferences related to the target domain, scoring, generalization, and extrapolation. Evidence for an implication inference, however, is pending. We propose a validation trajectory partnership for the WARNS to build evidence through a collaborative research program.