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…

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…

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…

This article reports on the development and initial psychometric properties of the School Interference Questionnaire (SIQ), a questionnaire designed to assess both academic functional impairment related to mental health problems and the type and frequency of school refusal behavior. Participants were 110 youth ages 13 to 18 years (M = 15.41 years,…

School attendance problems (SAPs) have traditionally been viewed as a result of behavioral challenges in student populations. Increasing evidence suggests, however, that a substantial portion of SAPs and school refusal behaviors are related to underlying anxiety in students. The school counselor, as an advocate for all students, is well-positioned…

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,…

Many states mandate districts or schools notify parents when students have missed multiple unexcused days of school. We report a randomized experiment (N = 131,312) evaluating the impact of sending parents truancy notifications modified to target behavioral barriers that can hinder effective parental engagement. Modified truancy notifications that…

Background: While, an extensive literature reveals the many risk factors associated with truancy, less is known about the way truancy develops, intensifies and persists. In recent years, authors have argued that the development of truancy should not be understood as an individual phenomenon, but as a process of complex interactions between the…

An estimated five to seven and a half million students miss 18 or more days of school each year, or nearly an entire month or more of school, which puts them at significant risk of falling behind academically and failing to graduate from high school. Every student absence jeopardizes the ability of students to succeed at school and schools to…

The primary aim of this study was to investigate how students' perceptions of relationships with peers at school and teachers' classroom management are associated with school refusal-related reasons and truancy-related reasons for school non-attendance. The study included controls for emotional stability and relevant parental variables. A student…

Using data on student outcomes and school choice lotteries from a low-income urban school district, we examine how school choice can affect student outcomes through increased motivation and personal effort as well as through improved school and peer inputs. First we use unique daily data on individual-level student absences and suspensions to show…

The Virginia Board of Education's "Student Conduct Policy Guidelines" were first developed in 1994 in response to action by the 1993 General Assembly requiring the Virginia Board of Education to establish such guidelines. In 2004, the "Guidelines" underwent a major revision in response to requirements of § 22.1-279.6. of the…

This study addressed the problem of poor attendance adversely affecting grades and learning. Current school policies do not address problematic attendance for all school-aged children, perpetuating trends of academic failure. The research objective was to determine if unexcused absences had a greater negative impact on a high-stakes test compared…

This study addressed the problem of poor attendance adversely affecting grades and learning. Current school policies do not address problematic attendance for all school-aged children, perpetuating trends of academic failure. The research objective was to determine if unexcused absences had a greater negative impact on a high-stakes test compared…

Literature on truancy shows strong relationship between school attendance problems and eventual withdrawal from school. On the basis of the assumption that the truant youth is a "potential dropout" and in view of limited literature on truants alone, truants and dropouts are considered to have similar attributes in this review. (Author)