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 Action Zone (EAZ) Initiative Schools, which had the task of improving school attendance as one of their specific aims. Findings indicate that some learning mentors have received very little specific initial or continuing professional development (CPD) training on the management of school attendance. Learning mentors consider that parent(s) and/or carer(s) condoning their children's absence and taking their children out-of-school for holidays during term-time are the most serious issues hindering their management of pupils with attendance problems followed by specific lesson absences and postregistration truancy, especially within certain schools. Learning mentors also consider that truants and absentees require more and better alternative curriculum and vocational education schemes. A majority of the respondents thought that truants and absentees require specific help from school-based staff, not specialist outside agencies. Nearly one-third of learning mentors believed they were in the best position to provide this help. The findings reported make a case for including methods for addressing pupils' absenteeism and truancy in the training of learning mentors and sets the stage towards conducting action-oriented (e.g. case studies) research. (Contains 11 tables.)