This brief provides an overview of how to identify and determine why a student may be avoiding or refusing to attend school, and ways that schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) teams can help to assess and address school refusal. We will introduce a research-based framework to engage in problem-solving to better support…

Many schools are faced with the prospect of soaring absenteeism rates, despite the use of traditional truancy courts and other legal interventions. A recent trend in the literature has been to explore alternative, hybrid, and multidisciplinary approaches to address the underlying obstacles to school attendance. These programs are often integrated…

With the emergence of the Democratic South Africa, a number of disciplinary problems emerged. One of these problems is truancy of school children from schools. The South African Schools Act (1996, p. 6) provides that if a learner who is subject to "compulsory attendance" fails to attend a school, the HODS (heads of departments) may take…

School refusal behavior refers to child-motivated refusal to attend school and/or difficulty attending classes for an entire day (Kearney & Silverman, 1996). As such, the term represents an umbrella construct for many historical ones that have been used to describe youths with problematic absenteeism, including truancy, psychoneurotic truancy,…

A major problem faced by schools across the country is student absenteeism. Although the problem is pervasive in American schools, the attention focused on this issue has been inadequate. Poor student attendance has far reaching effects on the individual, the school, and society in general. The intent of this paper is to document the problem,…

This paper reports the findings of a study set up to establish the impact of a particular scheme on the attendance and punctuality performance of a group of Basic Skills learners against the backdrop of various theoretical postulations on managing undesirable behavior. Data collected on learners' performance was subjected to statistical analysis…

Principals and teachers have long thought that student tardiness was a serious problem. In one study from the 1990s, 8-12% of students were absent each day, and more than 40% of teachers found tardiness to be a significant problem. In fact, it is considered so serious that a school's response can go to extremes. The question, of course, is not…