School absenteeism is a major concern across Canada — and beyond.
As researchers with the Canadian School Attendance Partnership, we have been exploring this issue for a few years, motivated by concerns raised by families, community agencies and school districts.
Canada is one of the few countries without a clear national picture of school absenteeism.
We draw on pieces of data to get an informed estimate of this. Our data comes from the OECD’s global Programme for International Student Assessment, school district reports, news reports via freedom of information requests — and from research studies.
The most common international metric of “chronic absenteeism” refers to 10 per cent of missed instructional days in the year. Our figures suggest that across the provinces, figures range from 35 per cent to three-quarters of all students missing at least 10 per cent of instructional days annually.
Systemic barriers, mental health issues, insufficient school supports and intergenerational distrust of formal schooling are among the factors that intertwine to impact whether a student goes to school.
Need to disaggregate absenteeism data
But the story of absenteeism lies in part in the disaggregation of this data. Students with disabilities, those who are Indigenous and those who identify as 2SLGBTQI are among the most likely to miss school.
Many students with disabilities who miss school are not even counted in absenteeism data. They may experience informal exclusions via being sent home for behavioural reasons or may be placed on part-time schedules.
They are also suspended at higher rates — all of which results in them missing hours of social interaction and classroom instruction.
Factors pertaining to disability, mental health
The problem must also be understood amid the ongoing child and youth mental-health crisis.
Population research suggests roughly 70 per cent of Canadian students have experienced a decline in at least one area of mental health since 2020 and poor mental health is a well-known risk factor for absenteeism.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Different patterns of mental health have been uniquely associated with school absence: for example, anxiety and depression tend to be linked to school avoidance, whereas behaviours like aggression are more often associated with school exclusion and suspensions.
Children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as ADHD and autism, are at a particularly high risk. These risks are cumulative, so that children with multiple mental-health challenges experience the most absences and impairments in daily functioning.
Read more:
Many autistic students are denied a full education — here’s what we need for inclusive schools
Research indicates that increased absenteeism can worsen existing mental-health challenges and vice versa.
While Canadian research is limited, data from other countries suggests contexts like family strain, socioeconomic disadvantage, sleep disruption, bullying and loneliness likely underlie the connection between absenteeism and mental health.
Absenteeism and academic achievement
School absenteeism, and its disproportionate rates for some student populations, is particularly worrisome given the powerful connections that exist between it and academic achievement.
Beyond access to classroom instruction and assessment, students who are chronically absent miss out on programs, peer connections, mentorship opportunities and school-based services.
These “missing links” impact students’ success and development — crucial for students with needs that put them at risk for poor academic outcomes.
New Brunswick, Ontario approach
Educators and leaders in different school districts across Canada understand the issues raised by absenteeism and are taking a variety of approaches to address them.
New Brunswick mounted a multi-tiered system of supports including school-based protocols and progressive strategies that include family and community partnerships.
In Ontario, the Ministry of Education recently shared its concerns about levels of school attendance, acknowledging the key link with academic achievement.
In response, the province has proposed legislation to make attendance worth 10-15 per cent of the final course mark in Grades 9 to 12. Students whose absences are approved by their family will not be penalized.
Is this approach likely to work? For the students with disabilities and mental health needs, not likely. Here are some reasons why.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Could students really attend if they chose?
Research provides minimal support for how effective incentives are in boosting attendance unless these are accompanied by broader reforms and targeted supports.
Incentives assume attendance is primarily a motivational issue — that students could attend if they chose to. But this isn’t always the case: think, for example, about a student who is kept home to watch younger siblings while a parent goes to work.
Attaching marks to attendance tends to benefit students already well-positioned to attend. Policies that rely on incentives risk shifting responsibility onto students rather than strengthening the conditions that make attendance possible.
What families say about complex reasons
Many of the families we have encountered in our research describe complex interactions between disabilities and mental-health needs that prevent their children from attending.
Parents may withdraw their child because of concerns about the learning or social environment, or their child may be sent home because of an educational assistant calling in sick or because of school concerns about student behaviour.
These students are also far more likely to be suspended and face various disciplinary consequences.
A narrow, grades-based approach to improving attendance fails to account for these students at best, and penalizes them at worst.
Problems with excused absences
Although the Ontario policy specifies that excused absences won’t affect grades, there’s strong evidence that all students are not equally likely to have absences formally excused.
Access to medical care, parental availability and resources, familiarity with school processes and relationships with schools all influence whether an absence is recorded as excused.
As a result, attendance-based grading policies can unintentionally compound existing inequities rather than reduce them.
Big-picture approaches
Effective approaches to increase attendance require a mix of systemic, big-picture approaches and student and family-focused solutions.
Collecting and sharing data that tells the different stories of student absences in a variety of ways can guide interventions.
Creating school environments that meaningfully include and support learning for all students, socially and academically, is key — these also need to prioritize relationships between students, families, educators and broader communities.
Accountability for absenteeism needs to be expanded beyond students, families and schools to include the broader societal resources that affect absenteeism for students with disabilities and others — resources like housing, social services, transportation and access to health care.
Absenteeism is not an individual but a societal issue. Solutions need to address the multiple layers in which students are embedded to have a chance of reversing this problem.
