The non-sense of raising school attendance

Abstract

For over 10 years, the English government has provided extensive funding for initiatives to raise school attendance, especially in the secondary school years, with unclear evidence of success. This paper will discuss some of the difficulties and contradictions associated with the notion of ‘raising school attendance’ and question whether it is a feasible aim. Main points will be as follows: (a) the importance of raising school attendance is based on the correlations found between poor attendance and both low academic achievement and onset of antisocial behaviour. However, the research demonstrates that these associations are not straightforward; (b) the arbitrary separation of pupils with attendance difficulties from those with behavioural/conduct problems ignores knowledge gained in the twentieth century about the causes of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, including poor attendance and recommended multimodal/multiagency interventions for such problems; and (c) legal sanctions for parents whose children do not attend school remain a threat frequently used by local authorities. There is no evidence that legal sanctions improve attendance when they are applied, yet practitioners continue to use them and may be encouraged to do so. The paper will argue that poor school attendance rate is only a quantifiable measure of a young person's complex difficulties and cannot be improved by simple unsubstantiated solutions. It will question whether the legislation on school attendance difficulties can be justified in view of what is known from empirical research about the causes and development of human behaviour and whether legal sanctions should be imposed on parents for this so-called offence in the twenty-first century.

Keywords:

• raising attendance
• absenteeism
• legal enforcement
• criminalising non-attendance

Notes

1. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily of North Yorkshire County Council.