attendance case study primary school

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Improving attendance: good practice for schools and multi-academy trusts

Schools and multi-academy trusts (MATs) share their different techniques for improving attendance rates in their settings.

Training sessions for new attendance guidance

Adam Luke, Department for Education (DfE) School Attendance Policy lead, outlines what the new attendance guidance means for schools and academy trusts.

What the new attendance guidance means for schools and academy trusts

Jayne Lowe, DfE Attendance Adviser, explains what makes an effective school-level attendance policy.

Setting up an effective school attendance policy

Star Academies share how they ensure the attendance register is completed consistently across their schools. Their presentation also covers the trust’s day-to-day processes to monitor, follow up and improve attendance.

Attendance coding practice and day-to-day processes

Sapientia Education Trust share how they work with families, local authorities and other partners effectively to maximise attendance.

Working with families, local authorities and other partners effectively to maximise attendance

Diverse Academies share how they use governance to support better attendance across their trust and academies.

Effective governance to support better attendance

Star Academies share how they analyse absence and attendance data to target and monitor improvement efforts. This presentation also includes a demonstration of the daily attendance reports that all schools can register for and access for free.

School attendance guidance training webinar – analysing absence and attendance data

Whole trust and school approaches to improving attendance webinars

Aaron Wright, Executive Headteacher, and Luke Renwick, Headteacher, of Brook House Primary School, share how they have created a culture of excellent attendance through a pastoral approach that has significantly reduced the number of pupils who are persistently absent.

A pastoral approach – Brook House Primary School

Kelly Moore, Principal at Ormiston Meadows Academy, shares the strategies they have implemented with various cohorts of pupils to significantly reduce persistent absence across the school.

Reducing persistent absence – Ormiston Meadows Academy

Michael Robson, Executive Principal of North Shore Academy, shares their approach for managing and improving attendance in schools in the Northern Education Trust, including work they did during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Managing and improving attendance in a multi-academy trust - Northern Education Trust

Jamie Stubbs, Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for inclusion, safeguarding and attendance at St Thomas More Catholic Academy, shares how they have managed to improve attendance levels to above national averages.

Improving attendance to above national averages – St Thomas More Catholic Academy

Diane Henson, Headteacher at Wheelers Lane Technology College, shares the strategies they’ve successfully implemented to improve attendance for pupils at their secondary boys’ school.

Successful attendance implementation – Wheelers Lane Technology College

Sue Huntley, Deputy Principal of Studio West, shares how they use their curriculum and other strategies to improve attendance in their 11-to-19 studio school.

Improving attendance in a studio school – Studio West

Special and alternative provision ( AP )

Wayne Askham, Head of the Abbey School, shares how they use their curriculum, incentives and rewards, and other strategies to improve attendance in their 5-to-19 special school.

Using curriculum, incentives and rewards – Abbey School

Matthew Rooney, Principal of St Giles School, shares the actions they have taken to reduce the attendance gap between their 3-to-18 special school and other mainstream settings nationally.

Closing the attendance gap – St Giles School

Bromley Trust Academy Alternative Provision share the actions they take at trust, school and pupil level to raise attendance significantly above national alternative provision ( AP ) averages.

Raising AP attendance averages – Bromley Trust Academy

Michelle O’Dell shares an insight into her role as Attendance Intervention Manager for John Taylor Multi-Academy Trust. This includes strategies for monitoring and improving attendance across all the schools in the trust.

Using an Attendance Intervention Manager to improve rates – John Taylor Multi-Academy Trust

Susan Morris-King, one of His Majesty’s Inspectors and Ofsted’s National Lead for behaviour and attendance, reports on the main findings of Ofsted’s ‘ Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence ’ report.

Ofsted findings on securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence

Related case studies and resources

Schools have shared their techniques for:

• managing attendance effectively
• texting parents: our key to success in tackling absence
• working with the community to tackle the root cause of absence

A rapid evidence review of attendance interventions is available on the Education Endowment Foundation website.

The Behavioural Insights Team have produced a guide on how schools can use text messages to clearly communicate pupils’ attendance levels to parents .

This is based on the results of a successful pilot programme in Bristol and includes examples of the style of communication schools can use to help boost attendance.

Updates to this page

Added a link to further information about attendance interventions and removed 2 now-redundant links.

The 'School attendance guidance training webinar – analysing absence and attendance data' has been added.

Added the 'Effective governance which supports stronger attendance' webinar. Removed the 'Future webinars' section as it was out of date.

Added links to additional webinars and updated the list of future webinars.

Updated webinars and future webinar dates.

Added links to additional webinars from different types of school including special schools, a primary school and a technology college. Also updated the schedule of future webinars DfE is planning.

Added links to additional webinars and a schedule of future webinars DfE is planning.

First published.

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School attendance: analysing causes and impact in pursuit of solutions

• Ravi Gurumurthy

About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

Senior Policy Advisor (Education), Rapid Insights Team

Tom joins Nesta as a senior policy advisor for the Rapid Insights Team.

Lucy Makinson

Head of Policy, Rapid Insights Team

Lucy is the Head of Policy for Nesta and the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), and leads the Rapid Insights Team which sits across the two organisations.

Full report

Browse sections.

The post-pandemic rises in absence rates are staggering. The sudden surge in overall and persistent absence has left schools and policymakers scrambling for causes and solutions. Finding ways to bring pupils back into school is crucial – absence has a profound impact on educational attainment and, by extension, longer-term outcomes. The challenge is complex and widespread.

Our report finds that the rise in absence between 2019 and 2022 has affected pupils all over the country, with and without additional vulnerabilities (such as Free School Meals or Special Education Needs). Deteriorating mental health and a shift in long-held attitudes towards physical attendance (amongst parents and pupils) appear to be significant drivers of this change. Significantly, a small number of schools that have bucked the trend and lowered absence rates may hold the key to tackling this crisis.

What's in the report?

• While absence has always been an issue that disproportionately affects pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, the recent rise in absence has affected pupils from all backgrounds all over the country.
• The rise in absence rates for pupils in the early years of secondary school is a concerning sign that non-attendance habits are developing early and will worsen as pupils progress through school.
• Friday absence rates have increased in recent years, but were already on the rise before the pandemic. This report found no evidence of a causal link between Friday absences and parents’ working from home.
• Deteriorating pupil mental health is likely to be a significant factor, as is changing attitudes among parents and pupils to physical attendance.
• There is no strong connection between known school characteristics and rises in absence during the pandemic.
• A small number of schools have bucked the trend and managed to reduce absence in very challenging circumstances. Their approaches may be key to tackling
• The rise in absence is likely to have a profound impact on educational attainment and long-term outcomes for a huge number of children.

School attendance rates since the pandemic

Image Description

Our recommendations.

Policymakers must:

• do more to examine the root causes of absence and build the evidence base on what works to reduce it
• gain a greater understanding of pupils’ and parents’ shifting attitudes towards school
• use behavioural science insights, including social norms messaging, to build pupil networks that can improve behaviour and increase attendance
• use data to identify and preemptively support at-risk pupils
• learn from the small number of schools who have managed to reduce absence during and after the pandemic.

Introduction

Even those with only a passing interest in education could not miss the latest topic of rising concern: attendance. Or, more accurately, the lack of it. Attendance has been described recently by school leaders, charities and commentators as the biggest problem facing policymakers and schools. The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel De Souza, commented that greater levels of absence are becoming 'normalised'. The sudden, and seemingly persistent, rise in post-pandemic absence could have profound impacts on attainment and widening inequality. Understanding who has been affected by the surge in absence, and the potential drivers for the rise, is an important step in developing solutions.

What has happened to attendance after the pandemic?

Increases in some types of absence were already occurring before the pandemic, with unauthorised and severe absences (pupils missing 50% or more of school) on a gradual but steady upward trend in the years prior to 2019-2020. But 2021-2022 – the first academic year free of lockdown measures – saw a huge rise in almost all headline measures of absence. The overall absence rate (the percentage of school sessions missed), the persistent absence rate (the number of pupils missing 10% or more of sessions) and the severe absence rate rose by 50% or more in 2021-2022 in primary and secondary schools. Overall and persistent rates actually fell in special schools in 2021-2022, having risen sharply the year earlier.

Recent data for the 2022-2023 academic year shows that overall absence has largely levelled off. Rates in primary schools are marginally lower than the previous year, while the rate in secondary schools is marginally high. The picture is almost identical for persistent absence.

Where the biggest change has occurred is with the type of absence. Having spiked in 2021-2022, the authorised absence rate is now gradually falling in all settings. However, unauthorised absences have continued to rise, most noticeably in secondary schools, where the unauthorised absence rate is now 3.5%, more than double its value in 2018-2019.

School absence rates

In practical terms, an average secondary school class of 30 pupils last year had around three students missing in every single lesson, eight pupils who were absent for at least one day a fortnight and (almost) one pupil who was absent at least half of the time. This is, of course, a representation of the impact of national absence rates. Schools with a higher than average proportion of pupils on free school meals (FSM) and pupils with special educational needs (SEN) could have significantly more pupils missing on a daily basis. This level of absence will have serious impacts on attainment: only 11% of severely absent pupils and 36% of persistently absent pupils achieve grades 9 to 4 (the new A*-C) in English and maths, compared to 84% who missed no sessions during key stage 4. The absence rates we are observing now will eventually translate into profound and long-lasting inequalities for absent pupils. Getting good GCSEs greatly increases the chances of pupils progressing to further and higher education, earning more and living in better health, according to IFS research . Pupils who earn one grade more across nine GCSE subjects are likely to earn over £200,000 more across their lifetime. There are also wider potential implications for teachers and their pupils who are not frequently absent. It is much harder to deliver a structured curriculum when a significant number of pupils within a class miss portions of teaching throughout the year and require ongoing catch-up support.

While the most recent data shows that absence may be plateauing, an overall absence rate of around 7.5% and persistent absence rates at almost 50% for some groups should, therefore, be front of mind for education policymakers.

To bring absence levels back down, we need to understand what is driving non-attendance. Working with data from the DfE and Arbor (a company that provides management information systems and analytics for over 6,000 schools across the UK), we have been trying to understand what patterns of absence can tell us about potential drivers – and solutions.

Who is missing school?

Disadvantaged students (defined by the DfE as those eligible for FSM) and students with SEN were at much higher risk of absence prior to the pandemic, and this remains the case in the years following the pandemic. A staggering 47% of secondary school pupils eligible for FSM were persistently absent in 2022-2023 (an increase of 65% from 2018-2019). But data reveals that all pupils, regardless of disadvantage and additional needs, experienced significant increases in absence. Persistent absence rates more than doubled for non-FSM pupils over the same five year period, meaning the persistent absence rate of students eligible for FSM actually decreased relative to their peers. A similar picture emerges for pupils with SEN. Secondary school pupils with SEN support and those with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) have persistent absence rates of over 40%, but the rises in absence they have experienced over the last five years are slightly lower, in relative terms, than their peers without SEN.

Absence rates for all pupils

For pupil ethnicity, the data does not point toward significant disparities in absent rate rises. ‘White’ is the major group with the highest rate of absence (excluding the small ‘Unclassified’ group), both before and after the pandemic, but all ethnic groups had broadly similar increases in absence between 2018-2019 and 2022-2023.

The findings of widespread and indiscriminate increases in absence do not diminish the susceptibility or impact on vulnerable groups of pupils. Pupils from more deprived backgrounds and those with additional needs remain many times more likely to be absent, and are therefore much more susceptible to safeguarding concerns and poorer educational outcomes. So while attention should rightly be focused on improving attendance for the most vulnerable, this analysis suggests that the current crisis has its roots in issues that affect all pupils, regardless of background.

One factor where large differences in absence rates are seen is pupil year group. Rates are typically lowest in year 4 of primary, after which they increase every following year, generally peaking at either year 11 or 12. The increases in severe absence as pupils progress into and through secondary school are the most eye-catching, with rates almost trebling between year 6 and 7, and then trebling again between year 7 and year 11.

The pandemic has not changed the overall patterns of absence, but pupils in years 7, 8 and 9 have experienced some of the largest proportional increases in overall, persistent and severe absence. Severe absence rates in year 7 have increased by almost 130% between 2018-2019 and 2021-2022. This is a worrying development as far as future absence rates are concerned and lends weight to recommendations given to the Education Select Committee (during oral evidence on attendance) that schools prioritise early identification and intervention for rising absenteeism.

There is also a relationship between pupil gender and changes in attendance. In 2018-2019, attendance rates in secondary schools for girls and boys were broadly similar, with headline measures differing only by tenths of a percent. Four years later, they are diverging, with girls experiencing higher rates of overall, persistent and severe absence (this is addressed in more detail later). This is not the case for primary, where boys still have marginally worse attendance than girls.

Are some schools coping better than others?

Almost all schools have seen their attendance worsen over the course of the pandemic. In the chart below, just 267 primary schools (out of over 15,500) have seen their attendance rates improve (indicated by orange points). For secondary schools, just 27 (out of the just over 3,000 in our data) have better overall attendance rates in 2021-2022.

Attendance rates before and after the pandemic

In general, schools with higher absence rates before the pandemic have seen bigger increases in their absences, post-pandemic. However, within this picture, there is still substantial variation. Even ignoring outliers, a school with pre-pandemic absences between 5% and 6% might now be facing absences of anywhere from 5% to 15%.

There is very little relationship between key school characteristics (size, location, composition) and the change in absence between pre- and post-pandemic periods.

Schools with higher proportions of pupils on FSM or higher levels of pupils with SEN have higher rates of overall absence, persistent and severe absence, but there is no apparent relationship between FSM and SEN level and change in absence between 2018-2019 and 2022-2023.

So, key school characteristics appear to have had little bearing on how they have coped with the rising tide of absence. We have identified a small number of schools with similar characteristics that have experienced vastly different changes in absence rates. Examining eight secondary schools of similar size that also have FSM, SEN and EAL rates within 10% of each other, we find overall absence rates and persistent absence rates of some schools almost double that of others, while severe absence rates differ by a factor of eight. These are only headline characteristic measures, and the true demographic picture of these schools will be more nuanced. Nevertheless, this comparison, and the discovery that a small number of schools have improved attendance over the last four years, suggests there are valuable lessons to be learnt about the influence of individual school policies and approaches on reducing absence.

How has the attendance crisis impacted different areas of England?

The change in absence between 2018-2019 and 2021-2022 varied across the nine regions of England. Regions in the South East fare much better on average than other regions, while the regions in the North, West and North East of England experienced the largest increases in absence over this period.

Examining trends at a smaller scale, we see that some local authorities have experienced much greater increases in overall, persistent and severe absence than others. Tower Hamlets experienced a rise in overall absence between 2018-2019 and 2021-2022 of just 1.7%, while Torbay’s increase was over 4%.

Torbay, Plymouth, St Helens and Bradford top the list of local authorities with the greatest increase in overall, persistent and severe absence, while Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, and Hammersmith and Fulham are in the lowest 10 in all these categories. Almost all the 27 schools identified earlier as bucking the trend of increased absences are in urban areas, with nearly half (13 out of 27) based within the M25, and seven within London Boroughs. We know that schools in urban areas tend to be better resourced than those in rural areas and struggle less with recruitment.

Changes in absence rates by local authority

Deprivation within a local area has an impact on attendance. The figure above shows how overall and persistence absence within a local authority increases, albeit marginally, with greater proportions eligible for FSM. It also provides clues about the indiscriminate nature of the recent rises in absence. While the relationship between FSM and absence remains after the pandemic, the correlation is now weaker, with points scattered more widely from the trendline. This suggests that local deprivation (as measured by FSM) is not a key driver of the post-pandemic spike in absences.

Connection between free school meals and absence rates

What is driving increased absences?

A deterioration in pupil mental health and a cultural shift in attitudes towards attending school, both fuelled by habits developed during the pandemic, are often cited as causes of the recent surge in absence. It is also claimed that reductions in school resources and new parental working patterns have created the conditions that have allowed attendance to deteriorate.

Are certain types of absence behind the increase?

In general, two attendance categories stand out as being responsible for the sharp increase in absence that occurred in 2021-2022: ‘authorised illness’ and ‘unauthorised other’. The illness rate (not including Covid-19) rose very sharply that year and was responsible for almost 60% of the increase in overall absence in secondary schools and for 77% of the increase in primary. This rise comes off the back of 12 years in which absence due to illness had been in steady decline. A fifth of the rise in overall absence in primary schools and over a quarter of the rise in secondary schools was due to ‘unauthorised other’ – a classification covering anything that is not an unauthorised holiday or authorised lateness and typically used when parents do not provide a reason for an absence.

Are cultural shifts behind the rise in absence?

There has been no substantial survey to date into the views of pupils and parents on schooling, pre- and post-pandemic, and how these views are affecting attendance. Limited research from the University of Exeter suggests a shift in parental views on the role of schools in educating their children started emerging during the pandemic, with more parents now positioning themselves as having a more important role in educating their children. An investigation by Ofsted also found that many parents now believe remote learning is a suitable substitute for attendance, even in situations not related to Covid-19. Parental perceptions of the risk of illness and increased anxiety feature predominantly as reasons for not sending their children to school after the pandemic.

The rise in Friday absences, recently highlighted to the Education Committee during its inquiry into school attendance, has been described as a symptom of a growing number of parents working from home and allowing their children to remain at home. By analysing data from Arbor, we have been able to make a comparison of pre- and post-pandemic daily attendance patterns, something that is not possible using DfE data alone. In 2021-2022, Friday absence in secondary schools was higher than any other day of the week. In primary schools the pattern is slightly different, with low absence rates at the start and end of the week. But Monday and Friday absence is not a uniquely post-pandemic phenomenon. Friday absence rates (relative to the weekly average) have been increasing each year in secondary schools since 2015-2016.

Daily attendance rate relative to weekly average

The conditions for higher Friday absences are arguably more present now than before the pandemic. Office usage surveys and London transport data indicate that many more people are choosing to work from home on Mondays and Fridays. At the same time, DfE attendance data reveals that the biggest drivers of the increased Monday and Friday absence was ‘authorised illness’ and ‘unauthorised other’. These categories lend weight to suggestions that an increasing number of parents are allowing their children to stay home on a Friday – either providing no reason for the absence or claiming their child is unwell. However, data that is publicly available at the local authority level does not support the argument that home working parents are driving Friday absence rates. Local authorities with a higher percentage of people that never work from home have higher levels of overall absence. Although the correlation is relatively weak, this is the opposite relationship to what we would expect if parental working patterns were driving absences.

Despite the coverage that Friday absences have received, the impact on overall attendance levels is low. If we artificially return Friday absence rates in 2022-2023 to their pre-pandemic levels, then the improvement on overall attendance rates is about a tenth of a percent (from 90.36% to 90.43%). If we go further and make Friday absence rates the same as they typically are on a Thursday, then the attendance rate rises again, but only to 90.65%. The consideration of Friday absences is valid, given the stark differences across the week and the potential impact on learning, but the overall impact of Friday absence is limited and the connection to parental attitudes is currently hard to prove. More pupil-level data on Friday absence and a large parental survey would help create a clearer picture.

Impact of absence on mental health and attainment

What is the impact of mental health on attendance.

Mental health is frequently cited by school leaders and charities as a driver of low attendance. There is a large body of evidence showing that pupils with diagnosed mental disorders are more likely to be absent from school and the pandemic undoubtedly affected many young people’s mental health, while making it more difficult for them to access support services. Making a definitive link between specific mental health conditions and their impact on attendance is challenging. The ECHILD dataset, linking health, education and social care, is released this year and will become a powerful tool for understanding the connection between mental health, attendance and attainment. There is some evidence currently within available DfE data that pupils with SEN relating to their mental health are experiencing higher levels of absence than their peers. Pupils with a diagnosis of Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) had the highest rates of overall, persistent and severe absence in the years leading up to pandemic. They have also experienced some of the highest rises in absence rates post-pandemic, particularly when it comes to severe absence.

We also know that pupils are reporting feeling less safe in school and that this will undoubtedly be impacting attendance. One in 10 pupils report missing school over a period of six months before being surveyed, as a result of feeling unsafe in school. Female pupils are disproportionately affected, with elevated psychological distress, self-harm and suicide attempts at a much higher rate than their male peers. Research from UCL shows that girls’ mental health was disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and that they are likely to have taken on additional caring responsibilities. It is not surprising then to see within the data that female pupils have experienced a greater rise in overall, persistent and severe absence since the pandemic.

What is the likely impact on attainment of current attendance levels?

The impact of attendance on GCSE attainment is profound. 84% of pupils with perfect attendance during key stage 4 achieved a ‘standard’ pass (grade 9 to 4) in English and Maths in 2018-2019. This falls to less than 50% for pupils with an overall absence of 10% (persistently absent, equivalent to missing one day of school every fortnight). This is significant when we consider that the average overall absence rate has risen from 4.7% in 2018-2019 to 7.5% in 2021-2022, that an additional 430,000 pupils are now persistently absent and around 44,000 more are severely absent.

The effect of attendance on GCSE attainment is difficult to establish from exam data, as grade boundaries are adjusted each year based on a number of parameters. While the percentage of pupils achieving at different grades will remain roughly constant due to these shifting boundaries, the approximately half a million additional pupils that are now persistently or severely absent will be much further down the curve and are therefore far less likely to obtain GCSE passes in English and Maths.

Had the grade boundaries between 2018-2019 and 2021-2022 not been adjusted, we estimate that the proportion of pupils obtaining a ‘standard’ pass (grades 9 to 4) in English and Maths would have fallen from 68% to 60% and the proportion obtained a ‘good’ pass (grades 9 to 5) would have fallen from 46% to 38%.

Conclusions

The marked increase in absence rates in 2021-2022, which has been sustained in 2022-2023, is rightly a cause for concern for schools, parents and policy makers, given the implications for safeguarding and learning.

Absence remains an issue that disproportionately affects pupils from deprived backgrounds and those with special educational needs, harming further these pupils’ educational outcomes. But the recent attendance crisis does not appear to have exacerbated this existing inequality. The widespread impact on pupils with differing needs and backgrounds suggests there is less of a connection to socioeconomic drivers and perhaps more of a root in pupils’ and parents’ perceptions of the value of school.

Some signs point towards the fact that the pandemic has added fuel to growing parental fears and dissatisfaction with the current nature of education. 2021-2022 saw an explosion in persistent and severe absence that was already on the rise before the pandemic, as was the level of unauthorised absence. Many parents were told that schools were not safe spaces and that learning could take place at home. Higher levels of Friday absence may be a sign that these parents are more willing to let their children remain with them when they work from home, but the pandemic appears to be an accelerant, rather than a trigger.

It is clear that mental health is playing a role in rising absences and the impact of the pandemic will continue to be felt long after the last lockdown. Pupil mental health (and its likely influence on behaviour, attendance and attainment) is a growing challenge for many schools. Large-scale pupil surveys (such as those being carried out by the Children’s Commissioner) and new datasets linking health and education should shed more light on how pupils’ experiences influence their mental health, perceptions of school and attendance.

The largely indiscriminate nature of the crisis, which speaks to widespread changes in attitudes towards physical attendance, poses a unique challenge for schools and policymakers. Efforts to tackle the attendance crisis must therefore be guided by our understanding of its root causes. The effectiveness of interventions will depend drastically on the origins of the problem. When resources are scarce (as is likely over the coming years), there is an even greater imperative to fund interventions that work.

This analysis, and previous work conducted by BIT, points towards four areas for further research.

• Getting to the root causes of absence and understanding what works in reducing it. Policymakers must interrogate the huge volume of data available and build the evidence base on the effectiveness of attendance-based interventions, which is currently relatively weak.
• Getting to the root causes should include building our understanding of pupils’ and parents’ attitudes towards school; it is clear that attitudes towards physical attendance have changed, but little detail is known about the reasons pupils and parents have for absence.
• Steps are already being taken to understand how social norms messaging can improve attendance . Evidence suggests that providing parents with information on the number of days their child has missed, and the likely impact on educational outcomes, can incentivise better attendance. BIT is already conducting trials on attendance text messaging to parents. More should be done to determine how to scale these approaches.
• More could also be done with the significant amount of attendance data recorded by schools to identify and preemptively support at-risk pupils . Historical attendance patterns could be used to identify incoming pupils at greatest risk of absence and inform the use of targeted interventions. Live attendance data could be used to quickly identify pupils with changing attendance patterns and disrupt trajectories towards persistent and severe absence.
• Establish if there are similarities in the policies and practices of schools that have managed to reduce absence during and after the pandemic. This could offer valuable insight into approaches that could be implemented in schools across the country.

Also of interest

Innovation Sweet Spots: digital technologies for the early years

Call for evidence on building a sustainable system of integrated family support

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, raising school attendance: a case study of good practice in monitoring and raising standards.

Quality Assurance in Education

ISSN : 0968-4883

Article publication date: 1 July 2006

The purpose of this research is to discuss the issue of managing and reducing school absenteeism and truancy.

Design/methodology/approach

The article proposes the development and implementation of some long‐term strategic approaches to tackling truancy and other forms of non‐attendance from school. This article focuses on the innovative School‐Based Scheme (SBS).

The article proposes methods which are relatively easy to organise, implement, monitor and evaluate. It can be used in both primary and secondary schools and/or throughout all schools within a local education authority.

Research limitations/implications

Preliminary evaluations suggest that it has improved attendance rates by over 4 per cent throughout all schools in one local education authority (LEA).

Practical implications

A high proportion of schools throughout England and Wales are below the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) targets either for overall levels of attendance, or for levels of authorised or unauthorised absence within both the primary and secondary sectors. The approaches proposed would address such issues.

Originality/value

It is hoped that the article will be of particular interest and help to head teachers, senior and middle management in schools, learning mentors, classroom assistants, home‐school liaison officers, principal and senior education welfare officers and appropriate local education authority staff, especially those pastoral and management staff who have day‐to‐day dealings with pupils like absentees and truants.

• Absenteeism

Reid, K. (2006), "Raising school attendance: a case study of good practice in monitoring and raising standards", Quality Assurance in Education , Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 199-216. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880610678531

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Article contents

Strategies and interventions for improving school attendance.

• Johnny S. Kim Johnny S. Kim Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver
•  and  Calvin L. Streeter Calvin L. Streeter University of Texas at Austin
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.1227
• Published online: 07 July 2016

This article presents an overview of school absenteeism, truancy, and school refusal behaviors.

The various definitions of school truancy and absenteeism are described along with prevalence rates and correlates with school absenteeism. The article also discusses interventions and strategies that are empirically demonstrated as effective in helping school professionals increase school attendance. The article concludes by discussing ways to improve school attendance through multilevel interventions.

• school refusal behavior
• absenteeism

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The publication was developed in the framework of the UNESCO IITE three-year project “ICTs in primary education”. The Volume 3 of the UNESCO IITE Analytical Survey illustrates how ICT can reshape the teaching and learning processes of children in primary education. The publication describes five bright case studies from Singapore, Russian Federation, Mexico, Slovakia and Canada with good examples and innovative approaches to infrastructure development, curriculum design and ICT teacher competencies development.

Publication year: 2014

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Schools have made slow progress on record absenteeism, with millions of kids still skipping class

An AP analysis of data from 40 states and DC shows school absenteeism got worse in each one except Arkansas from 2018-2022.

History teacher Matt Brophy, left, works with Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, of Medford, Mass., on making up late assignments during summer school at Medford High School, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, of Medford, Mass., poses for a photo at Medford High School, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Melinda Gonzalez, 14, poses at Fresno High School where she’ll be a freshman in Fresno, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

Melinda Gonzalez, 14, shown in her home getting ready to start her day, has benefitted from a program at Fort Miller Middle School to reduce chronic absenteeism in Fresno, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

Melinda Gonzalez, 14, has benefitted from a program at Fort Miller Middle School to reduce chronic absenteeism in Fresno, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, of Medford, Mass., works on an assignment during summer school at Medford High School, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

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MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste missed so much school he had to repeat his freshman year at Medford High outside Boston. At school, “you do the same thing every day,” said Jean-Baptiste, who was absent 30 days his first year. “That gets very frustrating.”

Then his principal did something nearly unheard of: She let students play organized sports during lunch — if they attended all their classes. In other words, she offered high schoolers recess.

“It gave me something to look forward to,” said Jean-Baptiste, 16. The following year, he cut his absences in half. Schoolwide, the share of chronically absent students declined from 35% in March 2023 to 23% in March 2024 — one of the steepest declines among Massachusetts high schools.

Years after COVID-19 upended American schooling, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance , according to data collected by The Associated Press and Stanford University educational economist Thomas Dee.

Roughly one in four students in the 2022-23 school year remained chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. That represents about 12 million children in the 42 states and Washington, D.C., where data is available.

Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school.

Society may have largely moved on from COVID, but schools say they’re still battling the effects of pandemic school closures . After as much as a year at home, school for many kids has felt overwhelming, boring or socially stressful. More than ever, kids and parents are deciding it’s OK to stay home, which makes catching up even harder.

In all but one state, Arkansas, absence rates remain higher than pre-pandemic. Still, the problem appears to have passed its peak ; almost every state saw absenteeism improve at least slightly from 2021-22 to 2022-23.

Schools are working to identify students with slipping attendance, then providing help. They’re working to close communication gaps with parents, who often aren’t aware their child is missing so much school or why it’s problematic .

So far, the solutions that appear to be helping are simple — like letters to parents that compare a child’s attendance with peers. But to make more progress, experts say, schools must get creative to address their students’ needs.

Caring adults — and incentives

In Oakland, California, chronic absenteeism skyrocketed from 29% pre-pandemic to 53% in 2022-23 across district and charter schools. Officials asked students what would convince them to come to class.

Money, they replied, and a mentor.

A grant-funded program launched in spring 2023 paid 45 students $50 weekly for perfect attendance. Students also checked in daily with an assigned adult and completed weekly mental health assessments.

Paying students isn’t a permanent or sustainable fix, said Zaia Vera, the district’s head of social-emotional learning.

But many absent students lacked stable housing or were helping to support their families. “The money is the hook that got them in the door,” Vera said.

More than 60% improved their attendance after taking part, Vera said. The program is expected to continue, along with district-wide efforts aimed at creating a sense of belonging. Oakland’s African American Male Achievement project, for example, pairs Black students with Black teachers who offer support.

Kids who identify with their educators are more likely to attend school, said Michael Gottfried, a University of Pennsylvania professor. According to one study led by Gottfried, California students felt “it’s important for me to see someone who’s like me early on, first thing in the day,” he said.

A caring teacher made a difference for Golden Tachiquin, 18, who graduated from Oakland’s Skyline High School this spring. When she started 10th grade after a remote freshman year, she felt lost and anxious. She later realized these feelings caused the nausea and dizziness that kept her home sick. She was absent at least 25 days that year.

But she bonded with an Afro-Latina teacher who understood her culturally and made Tachiquin, a straight-A student, feel her poor attendance didn’t define her.

“I didn’t dread going to her class,” Tachiquin said.

Another teacher had the opposite effect . “She would say, ‘Wow, guess who decided to come today?’ ” Tachiquin recalled. “I started skipping her class even more.”

In Massachusetts, Medford High School requires administrators to greet and talk with students each morning, especially those with a history of missing school.

But the lunchtime gym sessions have been the biggest driver of improved attendance, Principal Marta Cabral said. High schoolers need freedom and an opportunity to move their bodies, she said. “They’re here for seven hours a day. They should have a little fun.”

Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, poses for a photo at Medford High School, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Stubborn circumstances

Chronically absent students are at higher risk of illiteracy and eventually dropping out . They also miss the meals, counseling and socialization provided at school.

Many of the reasons kids missed school early in the pandemic are still firmly in place: financial hardship , transportation problems, mild illness and mental health struggles.

In Alaska, 45% of students missed significant school last year. In Amy Lloyd’s high school classes in Juneau, some families now treat attendance as optional. Last term, several of her English students missed school for vacations.

“I don’t really know how to reset the expectation that was crushed when we sat in front of the computer for that year,” Lloyd said.

Emotional and behavioral problems also have kept kids home from school. Research shared exclusively with AP found absenteeism and poor mental health are “interconnected,” said University of Southern California professor Morgan Polikoff.

For example, in the USC study, almost a quarter of chronically absent kids had high levels of emotional or behavioral problems, according to a parent questionnaire, compared with just 7% of kids with good attendance. Emotional symptoms among teen girls were especially linked with missing school.

How sick is too sick?

When chronic absence surged to around 50% in Fresno, California, officials realized they had to remedy pandemic-era mindsets about keeping kids home sick .

“Unless your student has a fever or threw up in the last 24 hours, you are coming to school. That’s what we want,” said Abigail Arii, director of student support services.

Often, said Noreida Perez, who oversees attendance, parents aren’t aware physical symptoms can point to mental health struggles — such as when a child doesn’t feel up to leaving their bedroom.

More than a dozen states now let students take mental health days as excused absences. But staying home can become a vicious cycle, said Hedy Chang, of Attendance Works, which works with schools on absenteeism.

“If you continue to stay home from school, you feel more disengaged,” she said. “You get farther behind.”

Changing the culture around sick days is only part of the problem.

At Fresno’s Fort Miller Middle School, where half the students were chronically absent, two reasons kept coming up: dirty laundry and no transportation. The school bought a washer and dryer for families’ use, along with a Chevy Suburban to pick up students who missed the bus. Overall, Fresno’s chronic absenteeism improved to 35% in 2022-23.

Melinda Gonzalez, 14, missed the school bus about once a week and would call for rides in the Suburban.

“I don’t have a car; my parents couldn’t drive me to school,” Gonzalez said. “Getting that ride made a big difference.”

Becky Bohrer contributed reporting from Juneau, Alaska.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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• 110 Baker St. Moscow, ID 83843
• 208.882.1226

A Classical & Christ-Centered Education

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We invite you to tour our school, observe a class, and meet our teachers and administrators. To schedule a visit, simply call our main office at 208.882.1226.

In order to better prepare for your arrival, we ask that you complete the following form prior to your campus visit:

Visitor Request Form

We look forward to meeting you!

Visitor Guidelines:

We respectfully request that our visitors comply with the following guidelines to ensure everyone benefits. These are general guidelines and can be adjusted on a case-by-case basis.

We’d like school visits not to be a distraction, disrupting the teacher’s schedule or curriculum plan for the day. Visitors will be given school maps and general schedules for the day and encouraged to float quietly between classrooms. Visitors can move to another classroom if there is a test, substitute, or study day.

All visits must be scheduled through the Visitor Coordinator (Paula Casebolt) at least a week in advance.

Visitors must check in at the front desk for visitor badges.

One visitor group per week, a maximum of 6 visitors at a time.

Visits should be kept to 1/2 a day in any one class, one day total.

Please refrain from distracting or speaking to a teaching or otherwise preoccupied teacher.  Very young children can be a distraction, so we ask that they not be in the classrooms.  You are welcome to quietly observe a class and see if a time can be mutually arranged to talk to the teacher or staff member.

Please respect the class’ materials, papers, books, etc.

Check with the appropriate principal before seeking an interview with a student.

There should be no more than one observer in a class at a time (aside from a parent accompanying a prospective student).

Scheduled visits will avoid finals week, the first and last weeks of school, and Knights’ Fest.

Please, no video or pictures.

Blog The Education Hub

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/08/19/fines-for-parents-for-taking-children-out-of-school-what-you-need-to-know/

Fines for parents for taking children out of school: What you need to know

Every moment in school counts and days missed add up quickly. Evidence shows that pupils who have good  attendance  enjoy better wellbeing and school performance than those who don't.  

The school day is split into two sessions – one session counts as a morning or afternoon spent in school. There are only a few occasions where a child is allowed to miss  school , such as illness or where the school has given permission because of an exceptional circumstance.  

However, if your child misses school without a good reason, local councils and schools can intervene and you may be issued a fine.  

We’ve also introduced a national framework which will mean all councils have the same rules in place for when they need to consider a fine. We explain more on this below.  

It’s important to note that children with long-term medical or more serious mental health conditions, and those with  special educational needs and disabilities  may face additional barriers.  

For children who face complex barriers to attendance, schools should have sensitive conversations with children and families and work with them to put support in place for their individual needs.  

How much could I be fined if my child misses school?    

In the majority of cases, schools and local authorities will try and provide support to help you improve your child’s attendance first, but if this isn’t effective or the absence is for unauthorised term time holiday, parents may face paying a fine.  

It’s the responsibility of the local authority to decide when to issue fines to parents, meaning the process varies from council to council.  

However, under the national rules, all schools are required to consider a fine when a child has missed 10 or more sessions (5 days) for unauthorised reasons.  

From August 2024, the fine for school absences across the country will be  £80 if paid within 21 days , or  £160 if paid within 28 days . This rate is in line with inflation and is the first increase since 2012.  

In the case of repeated fines, if a parent receives a second fine for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the higher rate of £160.  

Fines per parent will be capped to two fines within any three-year period. Once this limit has been reached, other action like a parenting order or prosecution will be considered.  

If you’re prosecuted and attend court because your child hasn’t been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500.  

Money raised via fines is only used by the local authority to cover the costs of administering the system, and to fund attendance support. Any extra money is returned to the government.  

How can you be sure parent fines are fair?  

Fines are a last resort, and parents will be offered support to help improve their child’s attendance first. The vast majority of fines for unauthorised absence (89%) are issued for term time holidays.  

If your child is facing barriers to school attendance due to special education needs or disabilities (SEND), schools, local authorities and wider services are required to work together to provide the right support in the first place.  

What if my child needs to miss school?   

Your child must attend every day that the school is open, unless:  

• Your child is too ill to attend that day.  
• You have asked in advance and been given permission by the school for your child to be absent on that day due to exceptional circumstances.  
• Your child cannot attend school on that day because it is a day you are taking part in religious observance.  
• Your local authority is responsible for arranging your child’s transport to school and it is not available on that day or has not been provided yet.  
• You are a gypsy/traveller family with no fixed abode, and you are required to travel for work that day meaning your child cannot attend their usual school.  

What happens if my child misses school without a good reason?   

If your child is absent and you haven’t received advance permission from the headteacher to take your child out of school, the school and local council may take action.  

Before that, your child’s school and your local council are expected to support you to improve the child’s attendance before any measures are put in place .  

These measures can include:  

• Issue a fixed penalty notice, otherwise known as a ‘fine’  – your local council can give each parent a fine. If you do not pay the fine after 28 days you may be prosecuted for your child’s absence from school.  
• Seek an Education Supervision Order from the family court  – if the council thinks you need support getting your child to go to school but you’re not co-operating, they can apply to a court for an Education Supervision Order. A supervisor will be appointed to help you get your child into education. The local council can do this instead of, or as well as, prosecuting you.  
• Prosecute you  – this means you have to go to court. You could get a fine, a community order or a jail sentence up to three months. The court could also give you a Parenting Order.  

Why is attendance important?   

For most pupils, the best place to be during term-time is in school, surrounded by the support of their friends and teachers.  

This is important not just for your child’s learning, but also for their overall wellbeing, wider development and their mental health.  It’s not just children who fail to attend school who miss out, but  those around them too.    

We’re working with schools and local councils to improve attendance by supporting  them to reset the relationship between schools, families and the government to ensure children have the best start to life.  

You can read more about what we’re doing to help schools improve attendance on the Education Hub .  

You may also be interested in:

• What are 'ghost children' and why is attendance so important?
• Why is school attendance so important and what are the risks of missing a day?
• School attendance and absence

Tags: Fines for missing school , Fines for taking children out of school , missing school , parents fines for children missing school , School absence fines , school attendance , School fines for holidays , School fines UK , School holiday fines

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The Republican Plan to Challenge a Harris Victory

How a right-wing takeover of an obscure, unelected board in georgia could swing the election..

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

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At the Democratic National Convention, party officials are celebrating polls showing that Kamala Harris is now competitive with Donald Trump in every major swing state across the country.

But in one of those swing states, Republicans have laid the groundwork to challenge a potential Harris victory this fall, by taking over an obscure, unelected board.

Nick Corasaniti, a Times reporter who focuses on voting and elections, explains.

On today’s episode

Nick Corasaniti , a reporter covering national politics for The New York Times.

Background reading

The unelected body that shapes voting rules in Georgia has a new conservative majority, whose members question the state’s 2020 results. They now have new power to influence the results in 2024 .

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are in close races across Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina , crucial swing states that Mr. Trump had seemed poised to run away with.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

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Nick Corasaniti is a Times reporter covering national politics, with a focus on voting and elections. More about Nick Corasaniti

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