The views of the children and young people experiencing Extended School Non-Attendance difficulties are scarcely represented in the literature. This systematic literature review provides a much needed overview of the existing research evidence through a detailed synthesis of the lived experiences of persistently non-attending young people, using a…

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its…

School non-attendance in autism spectrum disorders has received very little attention to date. The study aimed to provide a comprehensive description of school non-attendance in students with autism spectrum disorders. Through an online survey, parents of 486 children (mean age: 11 years) reported on school attendance over 1 month and reasons for…

Persistent school non-attendance (PSNA) is a widely acknowledged problem. Family coaches work intensively with families where a child or young person (CYP) has persistently poor or no school attendance and there is unemployment or anti-social behaviour. Their work extends across different systems, which gives them a unique, multi-factored…

From a review of the literature, it is concluded that (i) each form of pupil absenteeism relates to a heterogeneous group of children; (ii) because of such heterogeneity, those who are involved in assessment and intervention in relation to pupil absenteeism are faced with a demanding task; (iii) as a consequence of their education and training,…

Mental health problems--and depression in particular--have been rising internationally. The link between poor mental health and poor educational outcomes is particularly interesting in the case of the UK which has a low international ranking both on measures of child wellbeing and the probability of early drop-out from the labour market and…

This paper presents new evidence obtained from an empirical study which used three distinct groups of professionals engaged in the attempt to "brainstorm" reasons for pupils' non-attendance. The evidence suggests that the "causes" of pupils' non-attendance can be sub-divided into three main fields: pupils who dislike coming to…

This paper suggests that rather than criminalising or pathologising truancy as a "deviant" behaviour in need of either treatment or punishment, truancy should be considered as a rational enactment of dissatisfaction with State educational provision. It should be of little surprise that attempts to "solve" the truancy…

This article examines the views of 88 learning mentors about their understanding of the management of school attendance. The data were obtained from a questionnaire that was completed in 2004 by the learning school mentors attending a conference on improving school attendance. Respondents attended from Excellence in Cites (EiC) and Education…

The only major review of the education welfare service (EWS) took place in 1973 when the role and responsibilities of the service were very different from those of today. Recent legislative changes, the influence of the Children Act 2004 and revised public needs of the service, including new multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary frameworks,…

In recent years, various governments and education agencies have developed stricter policies to reduce truancy levels, mainly based on the argument that truancy is associated with risk behaviour, crime and substance abuse. In this article, we use a large, 28-nation comparative survey among 14 year olds to detect general patterns in consequences…

The UK government has encouraged schools and local authorities to promote school attendance because of its associations with academic attainment and antisocial behaviour. Legislation makes school attendance a parental responsibility. This small-scale study collected data on parent-child interaction immediately prior to school absence to examine…

For a multitude of reasons candidates do not always complete all assessments in the examinations they are entered for. Using examination data across a range of GCSE specifications offered by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, this article details the impact of "unaccepted" absence on educational attainment, and explores absence…

Interviews with 29 British Education Welfare Officers found they were involved in 21 court cases related to truancy. Some believed legal action was valuable; others were strongly opposed. Factors influencing its use included parent cooperativeness, presence of siblings, and teacher attitudes. (SK)

This article presents the methodology and findings on school attendance obtained over two years from 2006 for the National Behaviour and Attendance Review in Wales. The review was led and chaired by the author and the report was presented to the Minister for Children, Lifelong Learning and Skills and the Welsh Assembly Government in May 2008. The…