Truancy is detrimental to children's educational progress. Parents, being the first authority at home, share an equal responsibility with schools to thwart it. Unlike developed countries, many nations, e.g. India, have no legal actions or policies for truancy. A considerable gap in identifying any specific form of involvement from the parents…

This study uses a novel measure to describe school refusal (SR) behavior among 91 U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 18 years old in the month leading up to a partial hospitalization program (PHP) admission. Youth exhibit a range of SR behaviors. Three fourths (77%) reported missing at least two full days of school and nearly one third (29%) reported…

In this ethnographic study, I present a single school's practice of registering and analysing absence from school. I show that teachers use various "dirty," interpretational contexts for understanding absence and make it classifiable in "clean" attendance categories -- a move that decontextualises the meaning of absence. When…

Extended school non-attendance, commonly named truancy or school refusal, has over the last decade attracted attention among educational researchers. This article points to a need for theoretical perspectives that can account for the complexity and ambiguity of the phenomenon. The article presents a critical analysis of the research field of…

This study examined the extent to which residential mobility in the first 15 years of life was cumulatively associated with high school truancy at age 15 and whether there were specific developmental periods during which residential mobility was more consequential. To address these aims, we used data drawn from 4,848 children and families who…

Prior research demonstrates the importance of school climate in shaping student behavior but tells us less about which aspects of school climate matter. In this paper we consider how distinct elements of school climate relate to skipping school and cheating on tests. Using survey and administrative data from several statewide Delaware sources, we…

Student absenteeism is a persistent concern in K-12 education. Not only are the negative academic and social consequences of excessive absenteeism well documented, but states, districts, and schools are increasingly being held accountable for student attendance. As research indicates that disruptions in students' learning contexts may exacerbate…

Objective: The original 24-item School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised (SRAS-R) assesses four functions/conditions regarding school refusal behavior (SRB), bridging assessments, and treatments of SRB. No validated Chinese versions are available. Methods: To validate the Chinese version of the SRAS-R, an anonymous cross-sectional survey was…

Andrew Monroe [pseud.] (b. 1894) was a Colorado street kid whose acts of truancy and theft landed him before the state's early juvenile courts, and his youth was marked by attempts at escape from reform school. His childhood and youth provide insights into the mechanics of how systems of juvenile corrections operated in the early twentieth…

The authors report on a youth agency study conducted in post-conflict school settings in Sri Lanka. In a three-month field-based, qualitative research study, youth collaborated with the first author to explain and expand on their interviews. Their candor and concern for ensuring that the researcher understood the rationales behind their actions…

Using newly released detailed data on absence from school, we find a 'Friday effect'--children are much less likely to attend schools in England on Fridays. We use daily level data across the whole of England and find that this pattern holds for different schools and for different types of absence, including illness-related authorised and…

Many problems that we conceptualize as "educational" have multiple causes that cut across students' ecosystems. Yet, most education reforms are targeted narrowly at schools, educators, and students. Supporting educators and community leaders in conceptualizing educational problems from an ecological perspective and designing policies in…

Chronic absenteeism from school is a serious and common problem. Students miss school for many reasons, and the combination of factors that lead to absences are unique for each student. The only way to stop chronic absenteeism is to address the underlying causes, such as school avoidance, health-related issues, parental issues, and homelessness.…

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…

Background: School attendance and school attendance problems are complex and significant indicators of child and adolescent health and development. The study of school attendance/problems has a rich history but one that has bifurcated into detached systemic and analytic approaches. Objective: Integrative heuristic frameworks are pursued to enhance…