Rethinking Teenage School Attendance Dilemmas

Recently in talking with some parents of teenagers, I was concerned to hear of increasing difficulties these parents were having in getting their kids to school regularly. As part of the dialogue there were stories of late risers, late night online gaming, peer group catastrophes, grumpy teachers, assignment avoidance techniques, better places to be and of course the usual bit of teenager defiance thrown in. It seemed that the common thread was that for parents, getting teenagers off to school on time and having them stay at school all day, every day, is becoming an increasingly tough gig for many of them.

What do the statistics say?

It is no surprise then that this was borne out by the release of the 2024 ACARA school attendance results. The figures showed yet another (slight) decline in the overall Australian school attendance rate to 88.3% in 2024, with only 59.8% of students meeting the 90% school attendance threshold. So, the trend is now even further down from pre-COVID-19 levels, which was at the higher level of 90.9% in 2021. Interestingly too, major disparities have broadened based on location, where there is much lower school attendance in remote areas, as well as other significant variations across year levels, with lower attendance in Years 7–10 compared to Years 1– 6.

Often its increasingly tricky for full-time working parent/carer households to be able to execute the school attendance role and it has become an unrelenting and unsolvable grind. Even for households where the teenager is dropped close to school transport or at the school gate, there is still the inevitable trust that they will make their way to school on time and then, once that is achieved, there is the ongoing hope that they stay all day without any further direct parent intervention. For some families this escalating gamble every day can be mind-numbing and soul-destroying! However, this is not just an individual family issue that is solely limited to the teenage years and it has does have real life consequences if not addressed early.

The 2024 ACARA statistics showed that while not as widespread as for the teenager years, attendance rates were also low for many primary-aged and even some infants-aged pupils as well. It was clear nationally that some poor school attendance patterns are also evident in the earlier school years often especially obvious at school transition points. If this early pattern becomes the established norm, it is often very difficult to turn things around in later school years. No matter what the age, any unchecked attendance decline usually leads to further declines, and the cumulative consequence is unrealised academic performance and dramatic declines in educational outcomes with subsequent life-limiting consequences.

Emotionally Based School Avoidance

Added to this, those working with youth have often added the term Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) in relation to some aspects of school attendance. EBSA refers to children and young people who have difficulty attending school due to emotional factors, leading to prolonged absences. Psychologists don’t regard EBSA as deliberate school defiance but rather as a complex issue linked to mental health, where young people may feel intense anxiety, low mood, or stress related to school pressures, social situations, separation anxiety, or other life events and so not attend school for lengthy periods. Some students of all ages may also face school attendance complexities due to other matters. Cultural and social circumstances, religious adherences, inadequate disabilities services, family difficulties, transportation and school accessibility issues also add hurdles for some students and interfere with a sound school attendance pattern.

So, it seems there is recognition by all the stakeholders; local parents, by our education authorities and by youth specialists, that Australia’s school attendance needs some attention. But what’s the solution? At this point, as both an ex-high school principal and a parent of post-school adults, I note that in NSW (and likely for all Australian states and territories), the legal responsibility for being enrolled in and attending compulsory-aged schooling (or an equivalent) rests with the parents. In other words, it is a parental/carer responsibility to enrol and to maintain school attendance. However, while the legal responsibility is with the parents/carers, both the parents/carers and the school have a practical role in an individual student’s school attendance pattern. For instance, schools have the responsibility to collect and monitor student attendance, but schools can also clearly have an impact on individual school attendance too.

Push and Pull Factors in the Home

To unpack this further, it is helpful to think about school attendance as being influenced by a series of varying push and pull factors centred around both the student’s household and secondly, the school. Every student is influenced by these factors, sometimes consciously and sometimes not, and every situation is of course as unique as each student. For every student household there are factors that push the student towards attending school.

Individual household push factors influence school attendance could be things like:

• The household values education highly,
• Support is available to assist easy transport to school,
• The provision of necessary student equipment and uniform,
• Regular household routines are aligned with school,
• Encouragement for students to attend and fully participate in school events,
• Household members attending school meetings,
• Prompt notification of explanation for school absences,
• Other siblings already have regular school attendance patterns,
• Support for the completion of homework, assignment tasks and test preparation, and so on.

When these and other similar factors are in place, the big picture is that the household is effectively “pushing” the student towards school. Logically these proactive factors are more likely to lead to positive school attendance. Of course, every student is unique and there are individual circumstances that may or may not apply and day-to-day household interventions and strategies will still be needed. As any parent of a teenager knows though, telling or nagging won’t usually make it, so it is the more subtle and preventative circumstances related to the big picture of pushing towards school that will make the daily prompts and specific actions more likely to be effective too. By putting push factors like these in place it is more likely to lead to school attendance.

There is of course more to keeping kids at school than just using some household push factors. Unfortunately other home-based factors oppose these and serve to pull against positive school attendance. This is where things get a little more complicated! Such factors serve to create a household culture more likely to interrupt regular school attendance and schools see the impact of these factors every day.

Household pull factors could be things like:

• Family upheaval and unrest including relocations
• Previous negative schooling experience of household members
• Student low mood, stress, anxiety, and poor mental health which are poorly addressed
• Avoidance of student–parent conflict is prioritised in household behaviour management
• Sickness
• Social situations
• Parental and sibling illnesses
• Cultural and religious practices
• Family holiday priorities, and so on.

If present, these factors by themselves may not only reduce the likelihood of positive school attendance but where push factors (such as those mentioned earlier) are present, the pull factors can completely nullify the push factors, leading to spirally non-attendance. The relative strengths of the pull and push factors become the determinants of a student’s perception and response to being at school regularly. At this point we have only considered the household and there are still other factors at play. It’s obvious and as any parent will know, teenager reasons for not attending school regularly are more likely to be perceived as centred on the school and school peers. While some of this may hold only some credibility, school culture and school management does have an important role here too.

Push and Pull Factors in the School

While parents have the legal responsibility to ensure compulsory school attendance, the school must play a part in enhancing positive attendance patterns. Just like the household situation, schools can also influence their own set of pull and push factors. However, in considering pull and push factors for schools, they work the other way around to those in the household. For a school, pull factors serve to encourage student attendance towards school. Therefore, we should be maximising school pull factors as much as possible.

Let’s consider some examples of school environmental pull factors:

• An inviting school culture and a sense of belonging are enhanced
• Open, welcoming peer and friendship groups
• Bullying behaviours are readily identified and quickly managed appropriately
• A broad range of subjects and non-classroom groups and activities are offered
• Student voice is active and effective
• Teaching staff are caring and active in enhancing student wellbeing
• Remedial assistance and alternative educational pathways are openly available
• Attendance processes and programs actively encourage school attendance
• A collaborative approach with parents enhances attendance outcomes
• School transport routes, times and processes enhance prompt attendance
• Care and support by older students are systematised and encouraged, and so on.

It’s self-evident that if pull factors such as these were dominant in a school, teenagers would be more likely to want to go to school and to stay at school all day. So even though the direct responsibility for attendance rests with parents, schools must do much to enhance student attendance. However, just as with households, the pull factors towards school may be challenged by opposing school push factors which work against school attendance. These factors tend to push students away from regular school attendance.

School push factors could include:

• Undiagnosed student disabilities and/or learning difficulties
• Harsh consequences or alternatively, lack of follow up for absenteeism
• A lack of remediation
• Learning support is stigmatised across the school
• High levels of student disengagement and boredom
• Low levels of student choice and decision-making
• School contacts with parents only highlight problems and rule enforcement
• Teaching staff only prioritise subject content and curriculum
• The presence of negative and dysfunctional peer groups, and so on.

Here again, if school push factors such as these which work against attendance are dominant, any positive action attempted via opposing positive pull factors is largely negated. Going to school and staying at school regularly is much harder to achieve for parents where things that push teenagers away from school can swamp the other good things that may be present. Schools, like parents and carers will work to maximise one and also minimise the other. Both types of factors need attention. This is all very well, but how then can we change attendance outcomes for our teenagers and so enhance their future life choices. After all, there seems to be just too many uncertainties at both school and home to get some teenagers to school on time and to stay there. Add on top of this individual student characteristics such as those related severe disabilities or EBSA symptoms like low mood, or stress and anxiety as well as social media impacts and the difficulties for parents seem insurmountable, that is unless the school does its bit too.

Where does this leave things?

Firstly, and very clearly for parents and carers, there must be strong pushes from home to make school attendance a priority across the whole household. Despite the competing demands of homelife and work, parents will constantly need to maximise the home factors that “push” their teenagers towards school. When a problem exists, nagging alone is not likely to work with a teenager, nor is harsh punishment, extravagant rewards or even a hands-off “letting them decide” approach. The whole household instead needs to work on the assumption that a teenager will attend school every day, all day and everything and everyone works on that assumption.

Positive talk about school and helpful personal connections will assisthere too. In this way the push factors from home are towards school, and if, at the same time, every possible action is taken to minimise the home pull factors, then the chance of home success is as good as possible. For some teenagers with other personal complexities including those with EBSA symptoms, additional interventions may be required. This is where psychologists, therapists, health and community workers and other experts may be an extra initiative that the household needs to activate to support and direct their approach. Parents and carers need to be prepared to initiate action and assistance as soon as issues are
noticed so not to wait for the school to call. After all, remember it is the parent and carer who are responsible for a teenager attending school, so it’s appropriate for parents and carers to initiate change.

Early attention, usually involving connecting with the school, also helps change the pattern more easily. Sometimes parents and carers want to target a friendship group, or a particular teacher or student, or even a whole school as the source of the attendance issue. Consequentially, they look to enforce a change of friendships or even a new school to fix the problem. Occasionally this may be helpful, but from what we know about the various push and pull factors at work from both school and home, chances are this approach if taken in isolation, will fail as it is positive connections that foster resilience; so building on existing positive connections is a better approach. Remember too that a change of school adds another transition point in a teenager’s schooling, creating yet another stressor to non-attendance.

Solution Focused Questions to ask your teenager about school

Instead, parent action could wisely begin with an allocated time to sit down and have an open and honest conversation with a teenager about the various factors at play. The aim of the conversation is to agree on a collective course of action, blame, accusations, arguments and threats are no help here. Sometimes a trusted “other adult” might help make this work better. In the conversation, try asking Solution-Focused questions to genuinely find out what helps on the days they do attend, rather than open the conversation to find reasons not to attend.

Question such as:

Think about the times you have good attendance …

What do we do at home that helps you get to school and stay there?

When was the last time you really enjoyed school and what did you enjoy most?

What makes school worthwhile?

Who is your favourite teacher?

What do you like about them?

What other teachers do those things too?

What helps you stay for the morning/afternoon lessons?

Why do other kids stay at school the whole day?

This conversation can be used as both the basis for home life changes but also for beginning a conversation with the school. Having had a helpful conversation at home and having begun some homelife changes, build the partnership at school with home would seem essential. Good school practice works at maximising the school experience in ways that are conducive to “pulling” teenagers towards school, so that they want to stay there. Parents and carers are best to take the initiative to contact and attempt to work with the school to improve attendance remembering that a partnership will be the most productive approach.

On the school side, attendance is usually best where schools prioritise sound teaching, basic literacy and numeracy skills, rigour, interesting and challenging activities, fun events, good organisational structures, strong links with home, quick responses and follow up on non-attendance, where teachers that take an interest in the students not just their subjects, and positive student-teacher relationships. At times, and for some school communities where families face unusual hardships and hurdles, schools may need to help a household to manage the home push and pull factors as well, but parents and carers still have the legal responsibility. School blaming and severe sanctions won’t get teenagers to stay at school; it’s the partnership that can make the difference because remember, there are factors at play for both parents and the school.

Overall, it’s an increasingly difficult task for some parents to ensure their teenagers are at school and making the most of it. Merely blaming the school, their peers, their teachers, or their disadvantage is not adequately going to address the issue. Both home and school need to be in a working partnership to maximise the positive factors that will help get teenagers to be at school and enjoy that time as rewarding and beneficial to a fulfilling adult life ahead. Parents and carers have the prime responsibility for attendance, and some will need to initiate expert assistance for a teenager with unique hurdles. For most teenagers, maximising the push factors at home while the school maximises the pull factors at school has the potential to create the environment where talk of things like dragging teenagers out of bed and unwanted truancy phone calls are potentially no longer required.

If only raising a mature young adult was as simple as putting it in writing!

Neil Worsley

Director of Schools

The Resilience Centre