Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia
[permission to reproduce granted if
authorship is acknowledged]
Heightened
attention to systemic issues in education is one of the few good thing to have
come from COVID 19. The inadequacies of
online learning and the challenges facing vulnerable student populations are
two prominent issues. Another that has only recently received much attention is
students who are completely absent
from school; they
are neither attending school or receiving instruction at home or elsewhere.
Chronic
student absenteeism has been a problem as long as there have been formal
education systems. In 1874, the provincial government in
British Columbia introduced legislation to reduce student absenteeism by
linking it to teachers’ pay. This approach to curbing absenteeism, very
unpopular with teachers, was abandoned.
Two years later, the Public School Act was amended to put the onus on
local boards of school trustees to enforce school attendance for students aged
seven to twelve. In 1901, another amendment to the Act raised the minimum
school leaving age to 14.
There
is a long history of governments, school boards, and schools trying to address student
absenteeism. The literature devoted to the topic is voluminous, but the
evidence of success is limited.
Chronic absenteeism occurs for numerous reasons.
· Family factors affecting school attendance include aversion to school because of the child’s or parent’s prior negative experiences; homelessness; insufficient resources for the food, clothing, supplies, and transportation that are needed for school; children who work to supplement family income or care for siblings so that their parents can work; peers or family members who do not value schooling; and the necessity of attending significant cultural community occasions – to name only a few.
· Student factors affecting absenteeism include lack of sleep; low self-concept or lack of confidence; boredom; criminal involvement; lack of prior school success; poor health (such as childhood obesity) and mental health (self-harm, suicidal ideation); frequent residential movement; dependence upon unreliable others to accompany or transport the student to school, etc.
· The school or the classroom environment can affect absenteeism: unwelcoming environment; lack of challenge or remedial assistance; bullying or shunning by peers; discrimination; in-school and out of school suspension; placement in special education; grade retention; etc.[1]
Confronted
by a problem affecting large numbers of students, school systems try to find
and implement programs to address the problem. But the enormous range of factors
affecting absenteeism makes it difficult to craft a ‘program.’
There
are many descriptions of programs designed to address absenteeism, but the
evidence is scant. The programs that have demonstrable evidence of success are
few, and their impact is limited. In fact, even successful programs only
produce marginal improvement in attendance. Although the programs improve
attendance, chronic absenteeism remains.
A
second challenge to addressing chronic absenteeism has been the episodic
attention to the issue. Absenteeism is not a problem that can be eliminated. Student
absenteeism – especially chronic absenteeism – is an enduring problem for
school systems, one that requires constant attention.
The
idiosyncratic and persistent nature of chronic absenteeism makes it an
expensive problem to address. Tackling absenteeism is not something that can be
done off the side of someone’s desk, making it relatively costly.
But
anyone prompted to think that the problem of chronic absenteeism in so intractable
that additional resources should not be spent in addressing it should think
twice. Everyone is paying the price of chronic absenteeism, not just the
student.
- Chronic absence affects the student and the student’s peers. The student achievement of all students is affected by the absences of their peers. Chromic absent students make the teacher’s job more difficult. Adjusting instruction for students who are chronically absent reduces instructional time for other students and slows the pace of instruction.
- Chronically absent students are more likely to be disruptive when present. Classroom disruption eats up valuable instructional time. The impact is particularly great at the elementary school level where students remain with the same teacher throughout the day. Students at the secondary school level do not remain together for every subject, minimizing somewhat the impact of chronically absent students who are disruptive.
The
impact of chronic absence is cumulative. Chronically absent students find their
educational and life trajectories altered. Their achievement is poorer than
their peers who attend school regularly. Lower graduation rates and higher school
leaving rates take a toll on their employability, health, and may increase their
involvement in crime.
I
am hopeful that the attention that COVID 19 has drawn to students missing from
school prompts efforts to bring missing students back to school and address
chronic absenteeism.
[1]
See, for example, Reid, K. (2008) The causes of non-attendance: an empirical
study. Educational Review, 60(4) 345-357.