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…

Chronic absenteeism in early childhood is associated with numerous adverse outcomes throughout childhood and adolescence. Interventions are needed to prevent chronic absenteeism and support child development in early education. The present study investigated the effect of Primary Project, a school-based prevention program, on average school…

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.…

The South Carolina laws that mandate regular school attendance place the responsibility on parents to ensure compliance. South Carolina still uses punitive measures to address chronic absenteeism, meaning schools can refer students to law enforcement to face criminal truancy charges and jail time. Their parent(s) can also face criminal…

School refusal is a serious problem that negatively affects academic performance, connection to school, and socioemotional well-being of students. Numerous scientific works have suggested that school refusal is associated with internalizing problems. However, it is necessary to determine how this condition may affect certain academic variables,…

Although there is a wealth of research addressing the association between mental health and school absenteeism, there are calls for a better understanding of how mental health difficulties might predict SAPs (Egger et al., 2003; Finning et al., 2022; Ingul et al., 2019; Wood et al., 2012). The aim of this paper was to create a more nuanced…

Early warning indicator and intervention systems (EWS) have been promoted to identify students at risk of school underperformance or dropout. Current EWS systems typically include administrative data on attendance, behavior incidents requiring disciplinary action, and course performance. This study tested whether specific emotional and behavioral…

The problem addressed in this study is that chronic absenteeism of special education students impacts school performance, graduation rates, and future employment opportunities. The purpose of the phenomenological study was to document the lived experiences of parents of high school special education students as chronic absenteeism of their special…