tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/truancy-8375/articlesTruancy – The Conversation2024-02-29T17:37:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2221942024-02-29T17:37:25Z2024-02-29T17:37:25ZBeing excluded or truant from school leads to mental health problems – and vice versa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577410/original/file-20240222-19-dlxx0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C2488%2C1837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/toned-photo-sad-teenager-sit-on-760921072">Sabphoto/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the aftermath of the pandemic there has been a <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-absence-rates-have-rocketed-the-whole-educational-experience-needs-to-change-222187">substantial increase</a> in the number of students who are absent from school in the UK, and children are reporting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/15/number-children-mental-health-crisis-record-high-england">higher levels</a> of mental ill health than ever before. </p>
<p>Research has previously shown that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13632752.2014.945741">exclusion</a> (a child being removed from school) and <a href="https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/camh.12322">truancy</a> are linked with poor mental health. </p>
<p>Now, I have <a href="https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/camh.12681">carried out research</a> with colleagues to examine whether mental health leads to exclusion and truancy, or whether exclusion and truancy are in fact contributing to poor mental health in children and adolescents. </p>
<p>We found that the connection goes both ways. Children who struggled with their mental health were more likely to later be excluded from school and to truant. And we also found evidence that exclusion and truancy could increase their mental health difficulties.</p>
<h2>A vicious cycle</h2>
<p>Missing out on school <a href="https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/28/what-are-ghost-children-and-why-is-school-attendance-important/">is detrimental</a> not only to children’s educational achievement but also to their wellbeing and overall development. These children miss out on important formative interactions with their peers and teachers. </p>
<p>Being excluded from school can have a long-term – even life-long – impact. Research suggests that children who have been excluded are <a href="https://www.ippr.org/articles/making-the-difference">more likely</a> to be unemployed and to go to prison, as well as to have mental health difficulties. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/camh.12681">our study</a> we used nationally representative data from more than 15,000 children born in the UK <a href="https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/millennium-cohort-study/">between 2000 and 2002</a>. The survey collected extensive information on participants during their childhood and teenage years, including information on behavioural problems, such as aggressive behaviour, and emotional problems involving symptoms of anxiety and depression. It also included information on children’s experience of school exclusion and truancy.</p>
<p>Our analyses revealed that mental health difficulties in primary school left children more vulnerable to exclusion and truancy later when entering secondary school. More specifically, increases in emotional problems heightened a child’s chances of being excluded in their early adolescent years, and their chances of being truant from school.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young school children in uniform walking away from camera" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577416/original/file-20240222-28-5dkfbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577416/original/file-20240222-28-5dkfbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577416/original/file-20240222-28-5dkfbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577416/original/file-20240222-28-5dkfbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577416/original/file-20240222-28-5dkfbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577416/original/file-20240222-28-5dkfbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577416/original/file-20240222-28-5dkfbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mental ill-health in primary school is linked to exclusion later on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-diverse-kindergarten-students-walking-together-659275150">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Primary school children with worsening behavioural problems were also more at risk of being excluded when they reached secondary school. But, we found no evidence that behavioural problems increased children’s probability of truancy.</p>
<p>In our study, we also discovered that truancy and exclusion may in turn be exacerbating mental health problems. We showed that some of these detrimental effects differed according to the child’s gender. And while some affected mental health only in the short-term, others had a longer lasting impact.</p>
<p>For example, boys – but not girls – who had been excluded in secondary school went on to have higher levels of depression and anxiety, with effects lasting even into late adolescence after they had left school. Both boys and girls who had been excluded also went on to have worse behavioural problems in early adolescence but not later in adolescence. Truants went on to have greater long-term emotional problems, and short-term their conduct problems were also higher.</p>
<h2>Changing the pattern</h2>
<p>Our study very clearly demonstrates a cycle of disadvantage, where children who were struggling with their mental health went on to be truant or be excluded, but at the same time truancy and being excluded further exacerbated their problems, sometimes into late adolescence.</p>
<p>This new knowledge emphasises the need for prevention and intervention for child mental health problems. This could reduce the number of vulnerable children missing out on educational opportunities and also reduce further damage to their mental health. </p>
<p>School-based social and emotional learning programmes may have an <a href="https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.12864">important role to play</a> as these have shown success in reducing both behavioural and emotional problems. <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/41590/documents/205047/default/">Sports-based programmes</a> may be another promising avenue for keeping children connected to school. More awareness of child mental health is also vital, even as young as primary school age. Many children may <a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2017/2017">slip through the net</a>: they need better and early access to mental health services.</p>
<p>It is interesting that school exclusion was found to increase emotional symptoms in boys, but not in girls, in both early and late adolescence. These symptoms generally increase much more in girls during this <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0021-843X.112.2.179">developmental period</a>. Additional focus might be needed on finding alternatives to excluding boys from school.</p>
<p>It is particularly poignant that despite behavioural problems not leading to truancy, these types of problems increased following truancy. Children’s bond with their school seems key to reversing this trend. </p>
<p>Programmes that focus on transforming the school environment by developing student commitment to learning and creating a sense of belonging in the school, as these can <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/5/e031589">reduce truancy</a>, could make a significant difference here. And later mental health problems may also be avoided.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aase Villadsen receives funding from UK Economic and Social Research Council</span></em></p>Being excluded from school can have a life-long impact.Aase Villadsen, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Education, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1898492022-10-31T17:18:22Z2022-10-31T17:18:22ZSchool attendance problems are complex, and our solutions need to be as well<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488609/original/file-20221006-18-l771i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=419%2C0%2C6559%2C3940&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are many reasons why students miss school or struggle with engagement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past few years, the pandemic prompted school closures and remote learning that drew <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/us/school-absence-attendance-rate-covid.html">international attention</a> to issues of students missing school — what researchers call “non-attendance.” </p>
<p>Millions of students across the world missing varying amounts of school raises concerns about students’ learning loss and mental health — and also about long-term implications, particularly for those <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2021-0096">already at-risk</a> for poor educational outcomes. </p>
<p>But school non-attendance is not a new issue. <a href="https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/chron-absent.pdf">Terms like “epidemic” have been used in relation to school attendance</a> problems in many countries such as Canada, the United States and Australia for a long time. There have always been students who missed school. </p>
<p>School attendance problems are complex and often very challenging to address. And for responses to be effective in getting students to school more often, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02222">need to reflect this</a>. </p>
<h2>Not a Hollywood picture</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A teen watching television looking glum." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489203/original/file-20221011-13-zxeovx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489203/original/file-20221011-13-zxeovx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489203/original/file-20221011-13-zxeovx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489203/original/file-20221011-13-zxeovx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489203/original/file-20221011-13-zxeovx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489203/original/file-20221011-13-zxeovx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489203/original/file-20221011-13-zxeovx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In real life skipping classes looks different than in the movies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Popular culture is filled with examples of teenagers skipping classes — <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/g22880528/best-high-school-movies/">and in films</a> like <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042/">Ferris Bueller’s Day Off</a></em>, this is framed by humour and a gleeful sense of freedom. But Ferris Bueller went back to school the next day without any major impact on his life. This isn’t the case for many.</p>
<p>Evidence shows worse outcomes for students who miss a lot of school, including lower <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2019.07.010">academic achievement</a>, lower graduation rates, higher rates of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.12.002">interaction with juvenile justice systems</a>, mental and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-3648">physical health issues</a> and lower employment. </p>
<p>And certain life circumstances, such as poverty, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105432">increase the risk</a> of chronic school attendance issues.</p>
<p>Chronic school attendance problems are usually <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/about-us/educational-data/cese/2022-understanding-attendance.pdf">defined as</a> missing more than 10 per cent of school days. </p>
<p>School attendance in countries like Canada and Australia <a href="https://stepstojustice.ca/steps/education/1-understand-who-must-attend-school/#:%7E:text=School%20is%20mandatory,old%2C%20but%20this%20is%20optional.">is mandatory</a> until between 16 and 18 years of age, depending on the province or territory.</p>
<p>There are legal penalties for families whose children are chronically absent from school as well as for students themselves, and possible involvement of child protection services.</p>
<h2>Many reasons students are absent, disengaged</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/toolkits/teaching-attendance-2-0/use-data-for-intervention-and-support/strategy-2-consider-needed-supports/why-are-so-many-students-missing-so-much-school/">many reasons</a> why students miss school. </p>
<p>Some because they are disengaged, others because of significant anxiety or mental health and well-being concerns. </p>
<p>Some are absent because of frequent experiences of harassment, bullying and <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-contributes-to-poor-attendance-of-indigenous-students-in-alberta-schools-new-study-141922">racism</a>. </p>
<p>Others miss school because they have family responsibilities such as younger siblings, or because of <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-distance-learning-poses-challenges-for-some-families-of-children-with-disabilities-136696">disability-related needs that schools are struggling to support</a>. Students may experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12886">multiple types of school attendance</a> problems, and these may vary over time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young students in a classroom working at desks; one is in a wheelchair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489204/original/file-20221011-13-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489204/original/file-20221011-13-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489204/original/file-20221011-13-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489204/original/file-20221011-13-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489204/original/file-20221011-13-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489204/original/file-20221011-13-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489204/original/file-20221011-13-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The reasons students miss school may be overlapping and vary over time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-schools-absenteeism-education-1.4163052">Punishing attendance problems</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2020.100840">fails to address the issues</a> students face, from family responsibilities to barriers related to racism or inadequate support for disabilities.</p>
<h2>Complex, flexible approaches needed</h2>
<p>There has been more <a href="https://www.school-news.com.au/news/call-to-action-to-improve-school-attendance/">evidence</a> in recent years of the recognition of the complex, multilayered and flexible approaches necessary to improve school attendance. There have also been efforts to think about school attendance as more than just “present” or “absent.” Are students participating? Are they included? Are they engaged? Are they learning? </p>
<p>Many initiatives are still based on simplistic ideas of school attendance and punitive approaches that really <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/reducing-chronic-absence-requires-problem-solving-support-not-blame-punishment/">don’t work well in the long run</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-change-one-thing-in-education-community-school-partnerships-would-be-top-priority-188189">If I could change one thing in education: Community-school partnerships would be top priority</a>
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<p>These fail to address the issues experienced by students that create the attendance problem in the first place. And these approaches often further <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480221992884">punish students</a> most at risk of school attendance problems. </p>
<p>There are four key points or “ABCDs” for schools, families and communities to consider:</p>
<h2>1. Academics and well-being</h2>
<p>Well-being supports, including <a href="https://smho-smso.ca/school-and-system-leaders/foundations-for-leading-mentally-healthy-schools/">mental health</a> and addictions services, lunch programs, identity-based clubs, and opportunities for movement and physical activity are all important in promoting school attendance. </p>
<p>But if a child can’t read, or an adolescent is struggling to learn algebraic equations and falling behind their peers, well-being initiatives aren’t enough. An <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/well-being-and-success/">integrated approach</a> to support academic success and well-being for students is essential. </p>
<h2>2. Building relationships</h2>
<p>A sense of belonging and connectedness is critical to engagement, learning and attendance for students. Students need to feel like they matter to someone at school — someone who notices when they’re not there but who also welcomes them when they are. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Teen students in a class, some with raised hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489201/original/file-20221011-14578-sskvjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489201/original/file-20221011-14578-sskvjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489201/original/file-20221011-14578-sskvjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489201/original/file-20221011-14578-sskvjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489201/original/file-20221011-14578-sskvjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489201/original/file-20221011-14578-sskvjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489201/original/file-20221011-14578-sskvjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Relationships need to be fostered beyond the classroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Pavel Danilyuk)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Relationships need to be purposefully fostered between and among students, staff, families and communities. <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/downloads/pdf/nyc_success_mentor.pdf">Mentorship programs</a>, peer buddies, leadership opportunities, community experiential projects or <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/About-Us/Professional-Support-Services/Social-Work-and-Attendance-Services">attendance counsellors</a> are some examples of ways to support relationship building.</p>
<h2>3. Climate of school</h2>
<p>A supportive and positive <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/management/improvement/Pages/priority3positiveclimate.aspx">school climate</a> is key for students, staff, families and communities. Schools can provide opportunities for shared decision-making, autonomy, support and valuing of student and family identities and strengths. </p>
<p>Extra-curriculars and high expectations need to be in place alongside supports to meet these. Families can be welcomed in a range of ways that reflect the needs of communities. <a href="https://www.prevnet.ca/sites/prevnet.ca/files/fact-sheet/PREVNet-SAMHSA-Factsheet-Bullying-and-School-Climate.pdf">Bullying</a> and harassment, including anti-racist, homophobic and anti-Indigenous abuse, needs to be addressed.</p>
<h2>4. Data needed</h2>
<p>Data is important for understanding attendance — who is at school, who is not. And if not, what are the reasons? In shifting responses to attendance, schools can consider also shifting the ways they collect, use and report on data. For example, an <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/toolkits/teaching-attendance-2-0/use-data-for-intervention-and-support/strategy-1-monitor-chronic-absence-data/">early flag system</a> to identify student attendance patterns can help to proactively support students and families before chronic issues arise. </p>
<p>Considering traditional attendance counts alongside school climate data, student records, academic profiles and student well-being indicators can tell a fuller story, and lead to more effective ways of getting students to school — and keeping them there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Whitley receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Saggers receives funding from AutismCRC. </span></em></p>Punishing attendance problems fails to address the issues facing students, from family responsibilities to barriers related to racism or inadequate support for disabilities.Jess Whitley, Professor of Inclusive Education, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaBeth Saggers, Professor - Autism and inclusive education, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1904202022-09-14T00:28:44Z2022-09-14T00:28:44ZWhat happens when your classmates keep leaving? The impact of school transience on pupils ‘left behind’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484142/original/file-20220912-12-g19oz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5691%2C3788&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The claim last week by National Party leader Christopher Luxon that 100,000 New Zealand schoolchildren were chronically truant quickly turned into an argument about terminology, statistics and how to interpret them.</p>
<p>In fact, it appears Luxon was referring to a <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/474365/figures-unclear-on-how-many-students-are-wagging-school">figure from term one</a> this year that showed 101,861 children were “chronically absent”. This means they miss 70% or more half-days of school, but is not the same as being truant.</p>
<p>The wider political context of the debate was the current concern over youth crime and <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/129642747/no-quick-fixes-in-battle-against-poor-school-attendance">attendance levels</a> in general. While truancy and chronic absenteeism are an obvious focus, there is another problem that deserves just as much attention: transience.</p>
<p>This refers to the frequent movement of students from one school to another. It’s linked to poverty and is typically driven by changes in family or employment circumstances, or by changes in housing availability.</p>
<p>Often overlooked in discussions of transience, however, is the impact it has on the school environment – and particularly on those students who are not transient themselves.</p>
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<h2>The impact of transience</h2>
<p>The development of positive social relationships and social skills during childhood increases the likelihood of positive outcomes later in life. Schools provide opportunities for students to form bonds with peers and, through these relationships, build important social and emotional skills.</p>
<p>But a school’s ability to nurture social skills and relationships can be undermined by external factors such as poverty, which is linked to increased transience.</p>
<p>According to the Ministry of Education, children are <a href="https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/transient-students">considered transient</a> if they attend two or more schools in a single school year. Over their eight years of primary school, some children change schools as often as ten times.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cost-of-living-crisis-means-bolder-budget-decisions-are-needed-to-lift-more-nz-children-out-of-poverty-181466">The cost of living crisis means bolder budget decisions are needed to lift more NZ children out of poverty</a>
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<p>Although transience has been <a href="https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/208388/Transient-Students-2020-Indicator-Report.pdf">declining since 2016</a>, transience rates are almost six times higher at low <a href="https://www.education.govt.nz/school/funding-and-financials/resourcing/operational-funding/school-decile-ratings/">decile</a> schools than high decile schools. Sadly, compared to other OECD countries, Aotearoa New Zealand has one of the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18559440/">highest rates</a> of residential mobility among families of school children.</p>
<p>Children who move schools frequently can experience peer rejection, bullying, mental health problems, and, in some cases, demonstrate antisocial behaviour. Transience can also affect the school environment by disrupting or unsettling established classroom routines.</p>
<p>Children who attend highly transient schools are affected by the constant flux of peers moving in or out of the school community, which erodes social networks, social skill development and classroom climate.</p>
<h2>Measuring the impact of transience</h2>
<p>School programmes designed to build the social skills needed to mitigate the negative impact of transience have been shown to work. But less is known about the effect on students who attend schools with high transience rates, but who are not transient themselves.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/39481">research</a> explored the impact of Kiwi Can, a values and life skills programme operated by the <a href="https://dinglefoundation.org.nz/">Graeme Dingle Foundation</a> charity, on the classroom climate and social health of children. </p>
<p>The programme teaches positive relationships, integrity, resilience and respect. The curriculum is standardised, but can be tailored to the needs of the school. One Kiwi Can lesson is delivered each week to each class over the course of the school year.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-student-absences-arent-the-real-problem-in-americas-attendance-crisis-170063">Why student absences aren't the real problem in America's 'attendance crisis'</a>
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<p>We used a student questionnaire about positive relationships and classroom climate in 15 Kiwi Can schools (763 students) and nine control schools (456 students) at the start and end of an academic school year.</p>
<p>Seven Kiwi Can schools were classified as “new” because they had been in the programme for less than two years. The eight that had been in the programme for two or more years were classified as “experienced”.</p>
<p>We calculated the rate of transience for all schools using the number of students who completed both surveys as a proportion of the school roll. Rates were classified as “high” if the transience level was equal to or greater than 33%, “middle” between 32% and 15%, and “low” if under 15%.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484213/original/file-20220913-16-jj94lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484213/original/file-20220913-16-jj94lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484213/original/file-20220913-16-jj94lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484213/original/file-20220913-16-jj94lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484213/original/file-20220913-16-jj94lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484213/original/file-20220913-16-jj94lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484213/original/file-20220913-16-jj94lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Programmes that teach positive relationships, integrity, resilience and respect can make a difference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>Helping non-transient pupils</h2>
<p>In our sample, five Kiwi Can schools were classified as having high transience rates. Of these, three were classified as experienced.</p>
<p>We found non-transient children attending highly transient schools struggle to forge healthy social relationships, feel connected to their peers or schools, behave in prosocial ways, and show caring and compassion for others.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/truancy-parents-who-take-children-on-holiday-during-term-time-not-the-problem-46050">Truancy: parents who take children on holiday during term time not the problem</a>
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<p>They also seemed to feel less safe in their schools and enjoyed their schooling experience less than those in more stable (less transient) school environments.</p>
<p>While all schools reported lower scores against all these measures by the end of the year, this was greatest in schools with the highest rates of transience and the shortest experience of Kiwi Can. High transience schools that had longer experience with Kiwi Can had end-of-year results similar to those in middle transience schools.</p>
<p>Importantly, sustained participation in the Kiwi Can programme was found to mitigate the negative effects of transience for non-transient children. In fact, children who attended experienced Kiwi Can schools showed fewer declines in their social health over the course of the school year than children who attended new Kiwi Can schools in highly transient communities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teacher-shortages-are-a-global-problem-prioritising-australian-visas-wont-solve-ours-189468">Teacher shortages are a global problem – 'prioritising' Australian visas won't solve ours</a>
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<h2>More support for schools</h2>
<p>This work draws much needed attention to the complexities of transience, which affects not only children who move frequently, but also those who do not.</p>
<p>Although we are all aware of the impact of poverty and should be working towards a long-term solution, we must also do what we can now to mitigate the negative impact of transience on the health and wellbeing of our tamariki (children).</p>
<p>Transience negatively affects children who don’t move a lot, but this can be mitigated through positive youth development programmes.</p>
<p>Long term investment is needed to support whole school programmes that nurture social skills and help children feel more connected to school. But schools must be funded to deliver these programmes consistently if we are to support the needs of those “left behind”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children who move schools often can struggle. But so too can those who stay put while others come and go. More attention needs to be paid to these often-forgotten victims of school transience.Rachel Williamson-Dean, Postgraduate Research Fellow, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauGavin Brown, Professor of Learning Development and Professional Practice, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauPat Bullen, Senior Lecturer in Learning, Development and Professional Practice, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1342452020-03-20T06:19:38Z2020-03-20T06:19:38ZMy child is staying home from school because of coronavirus. Is that illegal?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321875/original/file-20200320-22602-drhb1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teenage-boy-wearing-headphones-works-desk-565376299">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a recent press conference on the COVID-19 situation, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australia <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-australian-parliament-house-act-9">schools would remain open</a> for the foreseeable future. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The health advice here, supported by all the Premiers, all the Chief Ministers and my Government is that schools should remain open […] I am asking all other parents around the country […] There’s only one reason your kids shouldn’t be going to school and that is if they are unwell.</p>
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<p>But many <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/school-attendance-falls-25-per-cent-as-soap-toilet-paper-shortage-hits-20200316-p54aok.html">parents are keeping their children home</a>. Some are doing this in an effort to “flatten the curve”, and others may be worried for the health of their child or elderly relatives.</p>
<p>Attendance in schools across Australia has fallen, by as <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/parents-are-voting-with-their-feet-school-attendance-rates-in-freefall-20200317-p54aw0.html">much as 50% in some</a>. Considering parents are going against the directive of governments, are they breaking the law by taking their kids out of school to study at home?</p>
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<p>On the face of it, the answer is yes. But it’s not black and white, and the likelihood of criminal proceedings is traditionally very low. Fining parents has always been considered a last resort, and that would seem unlikely to change in a time like now. </p>
<p>But the law is the law, and is there for a specific social purpose – it is never advisable to willingly and persistently ignore it.</p>
<h2>What does the law say?</h2>
<p>School education is governed by <a href="https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/View/a/2004-17/current/PDF/2004-17.PDF">state and territory</a> laws that mandate compulsory education. Parents are legally obliged to ensure their child attends school (or other educational options such as homeschooling) every school day, unless the parent has a reasonable excuse. </p>
<p>The maximum fine that can be issued to a parent varies considerably across jurisdictions. If a parent was to face court (normally this would be for persistent non-attendance), the <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2006-039#sec.176">fine in Queensland</a> can be up to A$800, whereas in <a href="https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1990/8/part5/sec23">New South Wales</a>, it could be $2,750.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-are-open-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak-but-should-i-voluntarily-keep-my-kids-home-anyway-if-i-can-we-asked-5-experts-134022">Schools are open during the coronavirus outbreak but should I voluntarily keep my kids home anyway, if I can? We asked 5 experts</a>
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<p>But again, prosecuting parents will not usually be the first response, and these figures are the maximum a court may impose. Many states either suggest or require warnings, notices, meetings or conferences before a case can be recommended for prosecution.</p>
<h2>Is COVID-19 a ‘reasonable excuse’?</h2>
<p>Most jurisdictions provide for a reasonable excuse to be given, and then often provide a few examples of what this might cover. If a child is actually sick, this would often be listed as an acceptable reason for their absence. </p>
<p>Similarly, six of the jurisdictions (ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, Tas, WA) specifically <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2006-039#sec.202">mention a defence</a> where the child is required to stay home due to a public health direction. The current direction of governments is for healthy children to go to school. But this defence could cover a situation where a family member is confirmed to have COVID-19, or the child has recently returned from overseas, and therefore needs to self-quarantine for 14 days. </p>
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<p>South Australia has a new Act which could allow a parent to keep a healthy child at home to prevent the risk of the child catching a disease; however this law has not yet begun to operate.</p>
<p>Without there being any specific and obvious defence for parents, it would come down to whether removing a child from school due to the threat of COVID-19 is considered a “reasonable” excuse. </p>
<h2>Who decides?</h2>
<p>In a worst-case scenario, it would be a court that would ultimately decide this question. But there are a range of decision-makers involved in school non-attendance cases who precede a court, including school principals.</p>
<p>Parents could apply for an exemption to their obligations in advance of their child’s absence. Decision-makers for exemptions vary between jurisdictions, and sometimes even within a jurisdiction depending on whether the child is at a state or non-state school. </p>
<p>Powers might be vested in the relevant minister (NSW, SA, Tas, Vic, WA), a departmental CEO/director-general or their delegate (ACT, NT, Qld State Schools), or a school principal (Qld non-state schools).</p>
<p>A factor that might make it more reasonable for the child to be exempted could be if there are other household members who fit into high-risk categories (for example, someone who is immuno-compromised). Also relevant might be what provision has been made for the child once the parent removes them – will the child be doing schoolwork, or playing video-games unsupervised all day?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-at-home-because-of-coronavirus-here-are-4-ways-to-keep-them-happy-without-resorting-to-netflix-133772">Kids at home because of coronavirus? Here are 4 ways to keep them happy (without resorting to Netflix)</a>
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<p>The prime minister said anything we do we would need to do for six months. This situation isn’t likely to resolve itself anytime soon, and it’s uncertain whether government advice will change with regard to schools.</p>
<p>For now, technically, keeping healthy children at home can be considered illegal. But the likelihood of criminal proceedings is low, and a government decision to prosecute parents would, I imagine, be publicly unpalatable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John O'Brien does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parent are legally obliged to ensure their child attends school. But fining parents is usually a last resort.John O'Brien, Associate Lecturer, School of Law, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/505112015-11-11T22:20:29Z2015-11-11T22:20:29ZWhy is school not working for so many young people?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101532/original/image-20151111-21223-19edzv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Disadvantaged children find schools increasingly irrelevant to their lives.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a growing number of young people giving up and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/primary-school-kids-missing-years-of-schooling-20151105-gkriht.html">dropping out</a> of school in Australia.</p>
<p>Kids as young as eight are switching off during these fundamental school years and missing out on huge chunks of their education.</p>
<p>The reports keep piling up, painting a <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/news-events/news/educational-opportunity-in-australia-2015-report-who-succeeds-and-who-misses-out">disturbing picture</a> of a growing disadvantaged group of young people <a href="http://www.hwllen.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=148">slipping through the cracks</a>.</p>
<p>But are we getting any closer to understanding the problem? </p>
<p>There can be no doubt that in Anglo-Western countries like Australia, the UK, Canada and the US young people who are being failed by the system are no longer a small disaffected minority of students.</p>
<p>Research shows the education system fails <a href="http://theconversation.com/australian-education-fails-one-in-four-young-people-but-not-the-wealthy-ones-49663">one in four young people</a> in Australia – a figure that has remained stuck for the past two decades or so. In some states this figure is as high as 50%.</p>
<p>If we don’t act soon, then this group of young people may rapidly escalate.</p>
<p>A few years ago some American commentators referred to the problem in the US as the <a href="https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/TheSilentEpidemic3-06Final.pdf">“silent epidemic”</a>. And they were talking only about the tip of the iceberg — the young people who had given up and dropped out of school. </p>
<p>The even larger problem may lie in the vast number of young people who barely endure school, or who engage with it only episodically, if at all.</p>
<p>It is probably no exaggeration to say that we are in the throes of a social epidemic that is going on largely unnoticed and un-debated, and is silently endured by those most affected.</p>
<h2>Current solutions too simplistic</h2>
<p>A common thread runs through the dominant explanations of the problem — which amount to “deficit” explanations. </p>
<p>That is to say, there must be something missing or wrong with the lives of these young people, their backgrounds, families, educational histories and communities that have to be remedied.</p>
<p>Having located the “problem” as being to do with some kind of alienation/disaffection from school, the solutions reflect these presumptions: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/news-events/news/educational-opportunity-in-australia-2015-report-who-succeeds-and-who-misses-out">early interventions</a>; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/prinprevent.aspx">anti-bullying strategies</a>;</li>
<li>more rigorous <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article4476434.ece">school discipline policies</a>; </li>
<li><a href="http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/studentsupport/programs/attendance.php">school truant officers and pastoral care programs</a>; </li>
<li>greater <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603110802657685#.VkKn_OmKhvE">parental involvement</a>;</li>
<li><a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/From-Silent-Witnesses-Active-Agents-John-Smyth/9781433113734">re-engagement and second-chance programs</a>;</li>
<li>even <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ820461">naming and shaming underperforming schools</a>, which will supposedly improve their game through exposure to school choice.</li>
</ul>
<p>What remains obscured in these accounts and their supposed solutions is the fact that they are simplistic or one-dimensional explanations for a complex multi-layered social problem. </p>
<p>Glaringly absent from most of these accounts is any extensive explanation or worldview of the problem from the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603120600894232?journalCode=tedl20">young people themselves</a>, their families, or from their more thoughtful teachers.</p>
<h2>The reasons young people give</h2>
<p>Here are some not-so-conventional explanations mostly revealed by young people themselves.</p>
<p>The already disadvantaged increasingly struggle to see the purpose of schooling. This increasingly includes even the middle classes as young people completing university are finding that the prospects of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/generation-y-overqualified-but-unprepared-for-work-20151106-gkt2ud.html">getting a job</a> suitable to their fields of study is difficult if not bleak. Two in three respondents (in a <a href="http://www.coop.com.au/white-papers">graduate survey</a>) are concerned about getting a career-related job.</p>
<p>They find schools increasingly irrelevant to their lives. </p>
<p>With social media becoming such a prominent part of young lives, and popular culture everywhere, schools can appear to some young people to be dinosaur institutions. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A30513">Research shows</a> that if young people don’t find schools a hospitable place, they will develop their own identity outside <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dropping-Out-Drifting-Being-Excluded/dp/0820455075">the school</a>.</p>
<h2>Schools struggle to understand working-class kids</h2>
<p>Schools are middle-class institutions and, as such, have difficulty understanding why the working class have so much <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Education-working-class-working-class-industrial/dp/B0007IT4GG">trouble fitting in</a>. </p>
<p>The argument they give is that it’s the young people who have to change, not the school.</p>
<p>Continuing to have individualised policy solutions to a historical inter-generational issue will not work. </p>
<p>Privatisation, testing, competition and school choice do not improve the educational trajectories of <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-5916-2_27">disadvantaged young people</a>.</p>
<p>Removing “trouble makers” may seem to make schools tidier places for parents <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/schools-in-battle-to-lure-students-20110829-1jign.html">exercising school choice</a>, but it does nothing to alleviate the lives of those pushed even further to the educational margins.</p>
<p>Dropping out of school should be seen as a form of <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3216661?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">resistance by youngsters</a> who feel education has little respect for their lives, families, backgrounds, experiences, even their strengths, and aspirations.</p>
<p>Maybe it is time we started exploring why school is not working for increasing numbers of disadvantaged young people, by adopting a sociological rather than a psychological perspective — one that is more attentive to the accounts of young people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50511/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Smyth received funding for this research from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Australian education fails one in four young people. It is time we started exploring why school is not working for increasing numbers of disadvantaged children.John Smyth, Visiting Professor of Education and Social Justice, University of Huddersfield; and Emeritus Professor, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/486962015-10-07T15:25:33Z2015-10-07T15:25:33ZBenefit cuts for parents will fail if we ignore the reasons why young people skip class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97598/original/image-20151007-7345-vg58z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Playing truant is no game. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Young student via kilukilu/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>David Cameron <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34450882">has announced</a> further measures to curb pupils’ absence from school through the use of financial sanctions. Fines are already imposed on parents when a “child is missing from school without good reason” as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34450882">a legal action</a> to enforce school attendance. The latest measures mean that those who do not or cannot pay the fine will see their child benefit deducted by £120.</p>
<p>It’s time for a confession. During my extended adolescent rebellion, truancy featured as part of my life. It was a way of escaping possible failure at school and some difficult circumstances at home. It provided me with a sense of adventure, of uncertainty and of risk in a world where I perceived myself as having little control. My parents did all they could to try to engage me in school, but the more they did, the more a wedge came between us. </p>
<p>In the end, the solution to my own particular circumstances came through intensive and concerted efforts of teachers, and my local youth worker, working with my family, to re-engage me in the education system. Since Cameron’s announcement, I’ve been reflecting on what those people around me did right. They listened, were patient, challenged me but supported me and thought of creative ways to help me to begin to see the value of why schooling mattered.</p>
<p>Those pivotal moments are the things that yield longer term and more valuable change – they certainly were for me. </p>
<h2>No quick fixes</h2>
<p>The prime minister, like all politicians who extol the virtues of a “good education”, starts from an undoubtedly noble position. Few could argue against the idea that children will benefit from attending school. Truancy can in many cases be a <a href="http://jar.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/28/0743558415587324.full.pdf+html">major factor</a> in provoking further social problems for young people.</p>
<p>But when politicians rely on describing things through a dichotomy, such as “attend/truant” or “victim/offender”, such simplicity strips an issue of all its difficult and challenging complexity. Truancy is one example where causes are complex and there are no quick fixes, punitive or otherwise.</p>
<p>But it’s vital that any policies recognise that truancy has multiple causes, encompassing low self-esteem, abuse in the home, caring responsibilities, social isolation and educational failure. <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/8655/1/RR424.pdf">Research in 2003</a> for the then Department for Education and Skills found that around a quarter of all young people truant without the collusion of their parents, finding themselves caught in a cycle that is hard to break. Parents perceived the main causes for truancy to be bullying, peer pressure and problems with teachers.</p>
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<p>When problems are multiple and complex, they require more intensive and considered solutions. Chris Yeates, general secretary of the teachers union NASUWT, is right <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34450882">to argue</a> that punitive financial sanctions are more likely to contribute to deprivation and chaos in those families already more prone to risk. These are often the families that most need help, not more welfare conditionality – where benefits depend on a certain type of behaviour, such as fines for non-attendance. The <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/welfare-sanctions-and-conditionality-uk">Joseph Rowntree Foundation has argued previously</a> that welfare conditionality could further distance people from support.</p>
<h2>Listen to young people</h2>
<p>Cameron’s announcement once again shows the gulf between policy pronouncements and the everyday experiences of young people. We could start by doing much more to hear from those who engage in skipping school. </p>
<p>Recent <a href="http://jar.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/28/0743558415587324.full.pdf+html">research</a> in the US acknowledges that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the process of addressing truancy as a national problem… it seems that less attention has been given to understanding the individual characteristics and contexts of truancy as seen through the daily routines of truants. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In short, we base our policy interventions not from the starting point of how young people describe their lives, but from the point of <a href="http://jar.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/28/0743558415587324.full.pdf+html">the “preferred futures”</a> we determine to be best for young people. To an extent, academic research mirrors this, and in so doing, academics collectively put young people into neat boxes and reduce social challenges from the fluid and volatile to the <a href="http://jar.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/28/0743558415587324.full.pdf+html">absolute</a>.</p>
<p>So the issues are complex. And for that reason, more fines are unlikely to result in a signifcant impact.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Pandya-Wood has previously conducted evaluations for national and local government. He is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>David Cameron’s plans to deduct child benefit from parents of truants will not fix a complex problem.Jason Pandya-Wood, Head of Sociology and Reader in Social Policy, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/460502015-08-14T12:05:49Z2015-08-14T12:05:49ZTruancy: parents who take children on holiday during term time not the problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91814/original/image-20150813-21428-ka4ol0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Real-life history lesson. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alliance/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of parents prosecuted in England because their children have skipped school <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33861985">has gone up</a>. But it’s possible that the tightening of regulations around authorised absences are disproportionately affecting different groups. Rather than the parents of persistent truants feeling the heat over the absence of their children from school, it may be those who actually ask for their child to be absent from school and have their requests turned down. </p>
<p>Since 2013, parents who choose to take their children on holiday during school term time are responsible for the unauthorised absence of their child and can ultimately be liable for a truancy prosecution <a href="https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/legal-action-to-enforce-school-attendance">leading to</a> a fine of up to £2,500, a community order or a three-month jail sentence. </p>
<p>Figures from the Ministry of Justice <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33861985">reported</a> by the Press Association, showed that the number of parents prosecuted increased by 25% between 2013 and 2014, to 16,430. It’s not clear how many of these prosecutions were for parents taking their children out of school for holidays. </p>
<h2>Truancy going down</h2>
<p>However, the latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england-autumn-term-2014">data</a> from the Department for Education for autumn 2014, shows a reducing trend of absenteeism in England’s schools. With overall national attendance above 95%, I’d question whether the issues of absence during term-time are such a national concern – or whether more effort should be focused on the significant minority of persistent truants.</p>
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<p>A deeper analysis of the data shows that while the authorised absence rate has reduced, the unauthorised absence rate remained constant at 0.9%. This suggests that in general, headteachers are authorising fewer absences and that parents are respecting those decisions. However, there appears to be little impact on bringing down persistent unauthorised truancies. </p>
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<p>It’s clear that the reason for truancy prosecutions is not only about family holidays during school term time. A significant proportion of truancy cases are <a href="https://books.google.dk/books?id=yUdtAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=da&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">likely to be related</a> to complex family and community issues.</p>
<p>Schools alone cannot solve the problem of truancy and community engagement is essential. <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Zubrick/publication/254863068_Student_Attendance_and_Educational_Outcomes_Every_Day_Counts/links/00b7d51ff21365e451000000.pdf">Australian research</a> has demonstrated that, for persistent absentees, there should be an emphasis on parental engagement and that every day of school missed has an impact on children’s achievement. The research goes on to say that interventions for improving attendance have to start early to have maximum impact. In some schools, community mentors and family liaison staff are employed to coordinate activity in this area.</p>
<p>Although there is agreement on a community approach to persistent truancy, it is not well suited to addressing the issue of parents taking children on holiday during school term time. The two primary reasons why parents might take their children out of school are likely to be the <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-for-smarter-thinking-on-costs-of-holidays-and-truancy-23809">cost of holidays</a> outside of school term time and the difficulty in parents being able to secure leave to coincide with school holidays. Given the current economic climate and that fact that families are stretched financially, it is not surprising that holidays during school term time are a serious consideration for some parents. </p>
<h2>Headteachers do the dirty work</h2>
<p>This can put pressure on the relationship between headteachers and parents. Headteachers have the power to authorise absence, in exceptional circumstances, but only in the context of scrutiny from schools inspectorate Ofsted against national attendance benchmarks. This can be particularly problematic in a small school where the absence of an individual child has a greater impact on overall attendance figures and could bring them closer to falling below national benchmarks. </p>
<p>Although the current approach of fining parents whose children skip school was controversial when launched, it did coincide with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/decrease-in-pupils-playing-truant-coincides-with-rise-in-parents-being-fined-when-children-skip-class-8540805.html">an overall decrease in truancy in schools</a> in 2013. The problem is that this creates an unnecessary obstacle in the relationship between parents and the headteacher and disproportionately affects compliant parents. </p>
<p>However we try to address this problem, the reality is that education in England is changing at a rapid pace. The days of schools being solely focused on reading, writing and arithmetic are gone. There is also a need for children to develop creative interdisciplinary skills so that they can learn to address the big challenges that society will face in the future, such as food security or cybercrime. </p>
<p>It could be argued that developing an awareness of international cultures, even through holidays, is part of the learning process and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02zdqxt">some parents have used this</a> to justify taking children on holiday. But even if headteachers did authorise absence for family holidays and other excursions, there still remains a bigger question about how to minimise the impact on attainment. </p>
<h2>Better able to catch-up</h2>
<p>One approach would be to adopt a more holistic approach to education and to focus less on memorising facts and absorbing knowledge and more on developing children’s key skills and competencies through a variety of contexts. With the expansion of free schools and academies, which have more autonomy to teach children the curriculum in different ways, this is already happening in some areas. A system could be implemented so that children with a good attendance record are able to access authorised leave during school term-time. </p>
<p>Consideration also needs to be given to how children catch up when they return to school following an authorised absence. In the same way as children who are off for illness, schools already have well-established systems for supporting children to catch up. Technology may have a role to play here as well – the use of video to record lessons is becoming increasingly widespread in schools.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that fining parents for doing what they think is right for their children is going to solve the problem. A pragmatic solution is needed to address this complex issue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Boddison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prosecutions of parents have increased – but is this really targeting persistent truants?Adam Boddison, Director of the Centre for Professional Education, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/313002014-09-17T03:02:58Z2014-09-17T03:02:58ZListen to your elders: inviting Aboriginal parents back to school<p><em>Tony Abbott <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2014-06-23/visit-north-east-arnhem-land">is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land</a>, part of his <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/abbott-calls-for-new-era-of-engagement-with-indigenous-australia-20130810-2rony.html">long-held hope</a> “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories does the PM need to hear while he’s in the Top End?</em></p>
<p>Promising “a new approach to engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to achieve real results”, the top priorities of the Australian Government’s new <a href="http://www.indigenous.gov.au/indigenous-advancement-strategy">Indigenous Advancement Strategy</a> are “getting children to school, adults into work and building safe communities”.</p>
<p>Based on 40 years of experience in Top End education, I’d argue that if you can get the schooling right – which involves adults just as much as kids – you can lay the foundations for more adults in work and safer communities too.</p>
<h2>Lifelong learning</h2>
<p>“Free, compulsory and secular” education took a long time to establish for Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. </p>
<p>I arrived at Milingimbi in the early 1970s as one of the first government educators, soon after the good-willed but under-funded Methodists had handed over their mission schools to the Northern Territory Administration Aboriginal Welfare Branch. There, the parents asked me why, if education were so important, it was visited upon children rather than adults.</p>
<p>I had learnt in my now radical-seeming teacher education in New Zealand the stories of how formal, universal education had served to keep poor children off the streets while their parents worked in the factories of the industrial revolution, and how it prepared the children for the same menial repetitive work in confined spaces for extended periods (the rich already had their schools).</p>
<p>Yet at Milingimbi in the 1970s, there remained a vibrant Methodist tradition of adult education, and plenty of interaction between the school and adult education staff and students. Every classroom had at least one local Aboriginal teacher, and there was often a grandfather outside under a tree singing or a mother telling stories.</p>
<p>Operating without carrots or sticks for attendance, the school had a central place in the life of the community, and we spent much time on country. We learnt from the elders that each child in school was unique to his or her particular links to history, people and place, and that we needed to understand and acknowledge those differences.</p>
<p>Today, times have changed. Under the pressures of “normalisation”, people everywhere are paying attention to NAPLAN test results. They are particularly poor for Aboriginal children in remote communities who grow up with little English around them, and who come to school whenever it pleases, truancy officers notwithstanding. </p>
<p>Communities and governments alike are looking for new and different ways to work collaboratively towards “Indigenous Advancement”.</p>
<p>If I were asked for ideas that could “achieve real results” – in remote Indigenous education – the following two would be at the top of my list.</p>
<h2>Adults are as important as the kids</h2>
<p>School can be an alienating experience when there are no senior family members around and no teachers speaking familiar languages. And the ancient practice of growing up children as independent agents in their environment, free of coercion, is still very strong in remote communities. </p>
<p>Parents would love to see their kids in school every day, but only if their kids choose to be there. The kids will choose to be there if they can see their families and clan elders working together with teachers and community leaders to make active contributions to their schooling and their futures.</p>
<p>Finding good ways of welcoming parents and elders – including their languages and authority – back into schools would do wonders for the NAPLAN results, if only because of improved attendance rates and the commitment of parents to a collaborative working together.</p>
<h2>Practical benefits of tapping into local knowledge</h2>
<p>We must also think about the new generation and its contribution to our future. The emphasis on English and maths results above all else means kids are assessed well before they are confident in the richness of their local identities and connections.</p>
<p>There is so much knowledge – including local languages, history, culture, environmental and ecological knowledge – that is there, waiting to be tapped into and reappear in classroom life, just as that knowledge was shared very productively in the past.</p>
<p>If Aboriginal families and their knowledge were taken seriously in schools, alongside the important knowledge from the outside world, it would not only revive the attendance rates but also prepare students to take part in the changing remote economies.</p>
<p>This isn’t just wishful thinking. If we want Aboriginal people to take an active and productive part in the future of remote Australia, a combination of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary Australian knowledge is very much what we need.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A film about a collaborative project between CSIRO and Aboriginal rangers, organisations and community people, tackling showing locals were tackling weeds in central Australia.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are practical ways that traditional knowledge can be a crucial path to future employment for young Aboriginal kids. For instance, in environmental services, <a href="http://www.nailsma.org.au/walfa-west-arnhem-land-fire-abatement-project">major carbon abatement projects (such as fire management)</a>, <a href="http://www.csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Biosecurity-Flagship/DVD-UnwelcomeStrangers.aspx">biosecurity and invasive species</a> management, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_heritage_management">cultural heritage management</a>, language, history, law, and many other areas. </p>
<p>All Australians benefit from having healthy, strong, bi-cultural Aboriginal populations in northern and central Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Further reading in this <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/abbott-in-arnhem-land">Abbott in Arnhem Land</a> series:<br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birthing-on-country-could-deliver-healthier-babies-and-communities-31180">Birthing on Country could deliver healthier babies and communities</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-my-country-seeing-the-true-beauty-of-life-in-bawaka-31378">Welcome to my Country: seeing the true beauty of life in Bawaka</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pm-for-aboriginal-affairs-abbott-faces-his-biggest-hearing-test-31021">‘PM for Aboriginal Affairs’ Abbott faces his biggest hearing test</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-7-up-the-revealing-study-tracking-babies-to-adults-27312">Australia’s 7 Up: the revealing study tracking babies to adults</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/well-connected-indigenous-kids-keen-to-tap-new-ways-to-save-lives-30964">Well-connected Indigenous kids keen to tap new ways to save lives</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-australias-rapid-rise-is-shifting-money-and-votes-26524">Indigenous Australia’s rapid rise is shifting money and votes</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-crowded-homes-can-lead-to-empty-schools-in-the-bush-30971">How crowded homes can lead to empty schools in the bush</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/would-you-risk-losing-your-home-for-a-few-weeks-of-work-30911">Would you risk losing your home for a few weeks of work?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-australians-need-a-licence-to-drive-but-also-to-work-31480">Indigenous Australians need a licence to drive, but also to work</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/keeping-indigenous-teens-in-school-by-reinventing-the-lessons-30960">Keeping Indigenous teens in school by reinventing the lessons</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-can-a-dna-test-reveal-if-youre-an-indigenous-australian-31767">Explainer: Can a DNA test reveal if you’re an Indigenous Australian?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-indigenous-constitutional-recognition-means-31770">Explainer: what Indigenous constitutional recognition means</a></em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Christie receives funding from the Australian and Northern Territory Governments to undertake governance research, as well as funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Tony Abbott is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…Michael Christie, Professor of Education, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/309712014-09-15T20:31:27Z2014-09-15T20:31:27ZHow crowded homes can lead to empty schools in the bush<p><em>Tony Abbott <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2014-06-23/visit-north-east-arnhem-land">is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land</a>, part of his <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/abbott-calls-for-new-era-of-engagement-with-indigenous-australia-20130810-2rony.html">long-held hope</a> “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories does the PM need to hear while he’s in the Top End?</em></p>
<p>Earlier this year, Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/curfews-for-kids-to-battle-truancy/story-fn9hm1pm-1226815395242?nk=">attracted national media coverage</a> on his visits to remote Top End Aboriginal communities, where he urged new local truancy officers clad in bright yellow T-shirts and bearing loudhailers to “get the kids to school”. But after an initial spike in attendance at bush schools – often from an alarmingly low base – our more recent analysis suggests that little lasting improvement has been achieved.</p>
<p>Our research shows a huge gap in Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance in the Northern Territory remains. However, we have also uncovered some of the reasons for that poor attendance, which could make a real difference to seeing more Indigenous kids in school and getting the education they need for a better future.</p>
<h2>Why turning up at school matters</h2>
<p>An attendance rate of 80% is generally considered to be the absolute minimum for a student to be able to keep up in their school learning.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.menzies.edu.au/">Menzies School of Health Research</a> study analysed the school attendance records of about 6,500 children born in the Northern Territory between 1994 and 2004. It found that two-thirds (66%) of the Indigenous students in the sample attended school less than 80% of the school days over their school career. In contrast, just 5% of non-Indigenous students fell below the touchstone 80% attendance level. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58099/original/bj7tq4vw-1409718746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Menzies Health</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Getting a good education, and doing well at school in a broader social sense, is widely acknowledged as providing the foundation for a healthy and prosperous future. Employers cannot realistically offer work to applicants who lack basic levels of literacy and numeracy.</p>
<p>The disturbing findings from our analysis underline the fact that closing the gap in literacy and numeracy will require much more effective measures to improve school attendance. </p>
<p>Sadly, the school experience of too many Aboriginal children in the NT seems unlikely to offer a path to a better future. The <a href="http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/naplan.html">2013 NAPLAN results show</a> that 18% of year 3 Indigenous children in Australia had reading scores below the national minimum standard. In the NT this figure is dramatically higher – almost half (49%) of Indigenous students are falling below this standard.</p>
<p>These children have little chance of making good progress in their school education. They are very likely to leave school early, without the functional literacy they need to secure and hold a job. Governments, Indigenous communities and society generally simply cannot afford a continuing failure of education of this magnitude.</p>
<p>So Senator Scullion is right to focus public attention on these devastating figures, given the gravity of the consequences of such low school attendance. </p>
<p>But are truancy officers the right solution?</p>
<h2>Tackling the causes of truancy</h2>
<p>On the face of it, the federal government’s allocation of <a href="http://minister.indigenous.gov.au/media/2014-04-04/remote-school-attendance-strategy-rolled-out-additional-30-schools">A$46.5 million to the Remote School Attendance Strategy</a> – and its imposition of an income management regime on families who fail to send their children to school – makes sense.</p>
<p>However, many complex contributing factors to do with life in remote Australia create the preconditions for low school attendance. While families must take responsibility for ensuring their children attend school, it should also be acknowledged that underlying community issues such as inadequate housing and health care, and inter-generational unemployment, are affecting their capacity to exercise this responsibility.</p>
<p>School attendance is a particularly thorny issue. Efforts to address one aspect of the problem all too easily reveal previously hidden concerns or create new obstacles.</p>
<p>If we want to find a scapegoat for the disappointing progress in improving Indigenous education outcomes, then it’s easy to focus on the performance of bush schools. But the problems of remote Australia are complex and the solutions need to be nuanced.</p>
<p>The truth is, schools can’t be expected do it all on their own. In fact, having looked at this problem closely, our <a href="http://ccde.menzies.edu.au/">Centre for Child Development and Education</a> has concluded that one of the crucial solutions to this problem lies not at school, but at home.</p>
<h2>The connections between housing and school</h2>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/W9SiFK">Our research</a> indicates a strong correlation between overcrowding in housing and school attendance.</p>
<p>We combined publicly available Australian Bureau of Statistics community data with schools data from the MySchool website on school attendance in remote Northern Territory, Western Australian and Queensland locations. Eight community factors – including average adult weekly income, education level, language spoken at home and remoteness – were identified as being separately correlated with attendance.</p>
<p>Remarkably, when we examined how these factors operated in combination, almost half of the explained variation in attendance was accounted for by a single measure: housing over-crowding, which is the average number of people per available bedroom in the community.</p>
<p>The average number of people per bedroom in these communities ranged from one to almost four. For each extra person per bedroom, there was a 20% reduction in the rate of school attendance.</p>
<p>There are compelling reasons for tackling housing overcrowding as an immediate health issue. However, the strength of this link between housing and school attendance suggests that reducing the shortage of adequate housing may be another important way to enable families to better support their children’s school attendance and learning.</p>
<p><em>Correction: A figure in this article – A$46.5 million to the Remote School Attendance Strategy – has been updated, along with an online reference. Thanks very much to reader Greg Dickson.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Further reading in this <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/abbott-in-arnhem-land">Abbott in Arnhem Land</a> series:<br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birthing-on-country-could-deliver-healthier-babies-and-communities-31180">Birthing on Country could deliver healthier babies and communities</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-my-country-seeing-the-true-beauty-of-life-in-bawaka-31378">Welcome to my Country: seeing the true beauty of life in Bawaka</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pm-for-aboriginal-affairs-abbott-faces-his-biggest-hearing-test-31021">‘PM for Aboriginal Affairs’ Abbott faces his biggest hearing test</a><br>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sven Silburn receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, The Ian Potter Foundation, The Sidney Myer Fund & the Northern Territory departments of Health, Education, and Families and Children.</span></em></p>Tony Abbott is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…Sven Silburn, Co-director, Menzies Centre for Child Development and Education, Menzies School of Health ResearchLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/316062014-09-15T12:58:15Z2014-09-15T12:58:15ZStop the fines and blame games: let’s end the war on parents<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58877/original/gwxbwn63-1410514248.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58877/original/gwxbwn63-1410514248.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58877/original/gwxbwn63-1410514248.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58877/original/gwxbwn63-1410514248.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58877/original/gwxbwn63-1410514248.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58877/original/gwxbwn63-1410514248.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58877/original/gwxbwn63-1410514248.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Under siege.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-216207328/stock-photo-parent-in-confusion-state-of-children-bad-manners-behaviour.html?src=R9c_HnXHqSYNtBcGM4I-iA-1-7">Parents in confusion by Dmitry Kalinovsky/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Parents could soon face fines for parking too near to a school, according to a new Manifesto Club <a href="http://www.manifestoclub.com/psporeport">report</a> on new Public Spaces Protection Orders. This comes after a record number of 63,837 <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2719736/70-rise-fines-parents-taking-children-term-time-holidays.html">fines</a> were imposed on parents in 2012 to 2013 for their children’s “truancy”. More often than not that meant just taking them on holiday in term time. </p>
<p>Teacher unions have often blamed bad pupil behaviour on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13176049">lack of parental support</a>. This summer, Michael Wilshaw, the head of schools inspectorate Ofsted, suggested that parents who miss parents’ evenings or do not read with their children or help them with their homework should be <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/17/ofsted-chief-sir-michael-wilshaw-errant-parents-fined-suggestion">fined</a>. </p>
<p>In the US last year one Wisconsin town decided to fine parents of <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/06/04/how_to_deal_with_bullies_fine_their_parents.html">repeat bullies</a>, prompting an international debate about whether this form of parental punishment should be adopted elsewhere.</p>
<h2>It began with Jamie</h2>
<p>This new war on parents started in 2005 when celebrity chief Jamie Oliver and the health promotion lobby began their campaign, first against poor quality school dinners but then against all those unhealthy things parents do, like taking children to McDonald’s or putting Jaffa Cakes and crisps in lunch boxes. </p>
<p>This huge and often unpleasant campaign reached a low point when Oliver claimed that some parents gave their children packed lunches that were so unhealthy their actions were “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jamie-oliver-says-unhealthy-packed-lunches-are-tantamount-to-child-abuse-8621479.html">tantamount to child abuse</a>”. The campaign has made parents fair game for public condemnation for their “irresponsibility” for nearly a decade.</p>
<h2>Backlash against new Scottish law</h2>
<p>However unpleasant they are, these instances of blaming and fining are mere skirmishes in the war against parents. The decisive battle is about to take place in Scotland as a result of the passing of the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/8/contents/enacted">Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014</a>. From August 2016 this will assign a “named person”, such as a teacher or health visitor, to look out for the welfare of every child under 18. </p>
<p>Despite patronising <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/child-named-person-plan-monstrous-invasion-1-3436462">assurances from the government</a> that mothers and fathers are still, in most cases the best people to raise their children, opponents in the lobby group <a href="http://no2np.org/">No2NP</a> against the scheme see it as a “monstrous invasion” of family life. </p>
<p>The argument at the core of this legislation is safeguarding. The aim is to ensure that no vulnerable child is failed by institutions of the state. There are debates about the powers of the named person and what monitoring, reporting and interventions they may do. None of this technical debate matters. What this act does for the first time is to say to parents that a person appointed by the state has authority over them and their child. It is the ultimate insult to every loving mum and dad.</p>
<h2>Parenting under threat</h2>
<p>Even if it has no impact or is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28219353">stopped in the courts</a> the idea of a named person sends the message that parents can’t be trusted to raise their own children. By dreaming up this appalling idea, the very concept of parenting is being challenged. </p>
<p>There is no comfort in this being legislation only applicable in a more devolved or independent Scotland. The warning in this legislation is for parents everywhere – those that run the institutions of states, and many that work in them, think that parents are not fit to parent.</p>
<p>The war against parents by the state is taken up too easily by teachers and academics because it has become part of their mindset. Many of the concepts popularised on training programmes are part of the armoury of war.</p>
<h2>Cultural capital is not everything</h2>
<p>A good example is the French sociologists Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron’s notion of “cultural capital” as often applied to families. In a facile way this can be, with some <a href="http://www.sociologia.uniroma1.it/USERS/salmieri/sociologia%20della%20cultura%20e%20sociologia%20dei%20processi%20culturali%202011-2012/10_Pierre_Bourdieu_la_pratica_della_cultura/Cultural_Capital_Some_Critical_observations.pdf">justification</a>, taken to mean that teachers can’t teach or will be less successful with children whose parents have not given them sufficient “cultural capital”. No Mozart in the womb, trips to art galleries or Homer at bedtime. </p>
<p>The crude use of “cultural capital” in this way blames parents and removes the responsibility, or even the possibility of teaching from teachers. Changing these habitual ways of thinking about parents is just one small step in reversing the tide of war. But we can go further. </p>
<p>There used to be lines near the gates in school playgrounds with the instruction: “Parents must not pass this point” painted on the ground. This was symbolic of a social division of labour which left parenting to parents and teaching to teachers. </p>
<p>We need to paint those lines again with a different instruction, readable from the school: “Teachers, celebrity chiefs, officers from the local authority, Ofsted and all ‘named persons’: do not cross this line”. Let’s leave parents to parent and keep all these meddlers out of the lives of parents and their children. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Next read this: <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-obsession-with-parenting-is-out-of-control-25052">This obsession with parenting is out of control</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Parents could soon face fines for parking too near to a school, according to a new Manifesto Club report on new Public Spaces Protection Orders. This comes after a record number of 63,837 fines were imposed…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/303102014-08-19T01:46:38Z2014-08-19T01:46:38ZGetting tough on truancy: punishing parents is not the answer<p>Prosecuting parents for a child’s truancy is a reactive response that ignores the real issue. It turns a social problem into a criminal one, at a significant cost to schools, families and society.</p>
<p>Recent cases such as the <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/alethea-solomon-of-morayfield-charged-for-teenage-daughter-tyleas-absence-from-school/story-fnihsrf2-1227017268045">prosecution of a Queensland mother</a> for the truancy of her teenage daughter highlight this. This punishes the parent, not the child. And research shows it generally has <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/42106/">little deterrent effect</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, the prosecution of parents has very little or no justification in legal or social principle. It adds further economic, social or psychological stress to already struggling families, and to parents who either no longer have control of their children or who do not themselves see the need for education. </p>
<p>The federal government’s <a href="https://education.gov.au/improving-school-enrolment-and-attendance-through-welfare-reform-measure-seam-0">financial sanctions for parents</a> are similarly unjustified. The policy of quarantining welfare payments to families when children do not attend school was piloted in 2010 in Queensland, introduced to the Northern Territory in 2013, and rolled out very recently in <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/benefits-threat-for-parents-as-truancy-returns-to-apy-lands/story-fn9hm1pm-1227020997861">South Australia</a>.</p>
<p>So, how should we as a society be addressing the truancy problem? The answer lies in creating places where young people want to go and are able to learn.</p>
<h2>Get students involved</h2>
<p>Prioritising inclusion, respect and engagement will help to change school culture. Students’ views can play a part in school decision-making. Respectful and responsible relationships <a href="http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/research/handle/10453/18999">can empower students</a> to play a role in conflict resolution and in the creation of safe, inclusive education environments. A sense of pride can be engendered in children, returning the school to the centre of the community. </p>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/10-children-education/truancy">many reasons</a> why students skip school, among them: fear of bullying or harassment, drug or alcohol dependency, family stress, behavioural difficulties resulting in defiance of authority, or simply boredom. Disengagement from education is a community responsibility which demands a community response.</p>
<p>There is increasing attention abroad to practices that embrace a wider approach. There is much evidence of their success, for example in education systems built on democratic principles in <a href="http://www.crae.org.uk/publications-resources/the-euridem-project-a-review-of-pupil-democracy-in-europe/">Europe</a>, and other initiatives involving the student voice in the <a href="http://www.unicef.org.uk/rrsa">UK</a> and in the <a href="http://www.iirp.edu/">US</a>.</p>
<p>New Zealand’s Commissioner for Children has taken a <a href="http://igps.victoria.ac.nz/events/downloads/Respectful%20schools.pdf">strong role</a> by commissioning studies of restorative practice and student participation, focusing on whole school issues. </p>
<p>The concept of restorative practice was developed first in the youth justice system in response to youth offending and was based on family group conferencing which encourages responsibility for actions and rebuilding relationships. </p>
<p>In New Zealand, this often incorporates Indigenous community inclusive processes, which apply the Maori “hui” concept to students, families, schools and communities to work together in a spirit of inclusion. These practices aim to create school environments which are cohesive and empowering for staff and students.</p>
<p>A few farsighted people, for example the former principal of Rozelle School in Sydney’s inner-west, Lyn Doppler, have begun similar initiatives in Australian schools. Restorative practice has been extended further to embrace student input into school decision making and classroom “circles”. In this way students learnt to relate, think and learn together. </p>
<p>Doppler’s research and practice confirmed that enhanced student achievement occurs in schools where these practices are embedded. It creates school environments that are inclusive, respectful and engaging. At their core is <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">Article 12</a> of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides for children and young people to express their views and for them to be respected. </p>
<p>Other <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1216&context=connect">recent school initiatives</a> in Australia include programs that allow students to plan their own maths curriculum, developing student action teams to counter bullying, and establishing student-led peer support programs.</p>
<h2>A shared responsibility</h2>
<p>The “right to education” is sacrosanct, as an individual right and because education is fundamental to the social and economic future of the nation. </p>
<p>The state is obliged to provide systems which fulfil the “four As”: accessibility, adaptability, availability and acceptability. This was set out in 2001 by the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/issues/Education/SREducation/Pages/SREducationindex.aspx">United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education</a>, and has been adopted by education systems worldwide. </p>
<p>A parent’s duty is to enrol and ensure attendance of their children. This is not always easy, but it is vital, as missing <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/skipping-school-for-just-one-day-affects-naplan-results-study-finds-20140802-zzjmr.html">even one day</a> at school can have a detrimental effect on academic progress. </p>
<p>Having significant numbers of young people disengaged from education is a serious problem, both in terms of life expectations and the future of society. Being out of school substantially <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/10-children-education/truancy">increases</a> the risk of criminal offending, and a lack of education is a firm predictor of unemployment. </p>
<p>Truancy is a problem that cannot be ignored. However, the current solutions are not working. Those charged with the provision of public education in Australia need to give serious consideration to the need for an inclusive approach, and to provide the resources necessary to implement this, rather than putting truancy at the feet of parents, families and already overstretched public schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Varnham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prosecuting parents for a child’s truancy is a reactive response that ignores the real issue. It turns a social problem into a criminal one, at a significant cost to schools, families and society. Recent…Sally Varnham, Professor of Law, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/269902014-06-04T05:03:21Z2014-06-04T05:03:21ZWhat lower truancy numbers don’t tell us about the children still missing class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50120/original/dkgrnypr-1401798079.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Present, but absent. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-102482045/stock-photo-tired-high-school-student-using-book-cover-his-face.html?src=VgUhCnfYkYFDyZfPbNUhEQ-1-28">Kid in corridor via michaeljung/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the end of last week the government released the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315569/SFR12_2014.pdf">autumn figures for pupil absence</a> in English schools. The figures show an ongoing drop in the number of children skipping school. But they also raise big questions about those pupils not counted in official statistics who are still missing out on a full education. </p>
<p>There had been an initial glitch with the data, with the first release withdrawn after only a few hours because an unnamed number of schools were not included. This was a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2636586/Ministers-left-red-faced-truancy-figures-showing-huge-drop-skipped-school-days-withdrawn.html">mild embarrassment for education minister Liz Truss</a>, who had already claimed the truancy figures as evidence that “by increasing fines and encouraging schools to address the problem earlier, huge progress is being made”. </p>
<p>That said, the correct statistics were almost as positive as the incomplete ones, putting paid to any suspicions that the dramatic fall in truancy was too good to be true. </p>
<p>The overall pupil absence rate is now at its lowest since autumn 2006, when termly absence data was first collected. While 5.2% of English school children were absent in autumn 2012, only 4.3% missed days in 2013. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50117/original/ns66wcgv-1401797280.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Overall school absence rates are going down.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315569/SFR12_2014.pdf">Department for education</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Illness generally accounts for more than half of all school absences and it seems that last year children were just not as poorly as they were the year before. But parents also toed the line in greater numbers, as the percentage of children <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-for-smarter-thinking-on-costs-of-holidays-and-truancy-23809">absent due to agreed family holidays</a> also fell.</p>
<p>Perhaps most significantly, there was a fall in the number of young people on the way to becoming persistent truants –- from 6.4% of those absent in autumn 2012 to 4.7% in 2013. Given the association of truancy with <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ714746.pdf">lack of qualifications</a>, unemployment and <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED496101.pdf">being locked up</a>, this may be the beginning of a trend we can be cautiously optimistic about. We will have to wait for the annual figures to see if the good news about persistent truants holds for the whole year. </p>
<p>The autumn figures show that children in primary school are still much better attenders than those in secondary, and that some local authorities have fewer absences than others. Not surprisingly, the local authorities in large and medium-size cities where there is substantially more economic hardship have more pupils off school than those in well-off rural areas.</p>
<h2>What the stats don’t show</h2>
<p>While national and local attendance figures point to trends in the basic entitlement of all young people to an education, they are only part of the story. </p>
<p>These autumn figures don’t sit easily alongside the national survey of education welfare officers conducted by their union UNISON at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. <a href="https://www.unison.org.uk/news/back-to-school-but-not-for-all">UNISON warned</a> that the shrinking pool of specialist staff in schools meant that less funds were being spent on early intervention and prevention. </p>
<p>They said local authorities were resorting to prosecuting and fining parents for children’s absences rather than attending to underlying problems. This might produce a short term gain in attendance, but more severe problems further down the line.</p>
<p>And there are other kinds of absences these figures don’t show. Those of us who visit schools regularly see students standing around in corridors, having been sent out of the room for poor behaviour. </p>
<p>There are frequently pupils in detention rooms, and others sitting in desks near the front office and deputy’s offices. There are young people who take the afternoon off once the after lunch-roll has been taken, or some who arrive at school late nearly every morning. </p>
<p>There are also persistent <a href="http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_561">reports of young people who are unofficially excluded</a>, or who are engaged in part-time, rather than full time, programmes. These kinds of “absent presents” don’t count as absences in attendance data, yet the end educational results for the pupils concerned may be as dismal as those for pupils who aren’t at school at all. There is more than one way to miss out on learning.</p>
<h2>Underlying reasons for truancy</h2>
<p>Most importantly, these figures don’t help us to understand why pupils persistently or casually truant in the first place. They tell us there is a problem, but not why it occurs or what we can do about it. </p>
<p>Ongoing attendance issues raise uncomfortable questions that aren’t amenable to a triumphal ministerial press release. Is it really the case that things outside school are always the problem for truants, or is it also that what’s on offer inside school is just not engaging enough? </p>
<p>Is non-attendance a sign of wilful misbehaviour or that there is a problem in learning that could be remedied? Perhaps the persistent and casual truant is a sign that all is not as it could be in the way that we organise and run our schools. While getting pupils back to school is certainly a start, it is not enough to ensure that all young people get the schooling they deserve. It is in how we answer these questions that we will find the answer to what to do with these pupils when they are there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pat Thomson has received funding from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Princes Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>At the end of last week the government released the autumn figures for pupil absence in English schools. The figures show an ongoing drop in the number of children skipping school. But they also raise…Pat Thomson, Professor of Education, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/238092014-03-25T14:41:15Z2014-03-25T14:41:15ZTime for smarter thinking on costs of holidays and truancy<p>The recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26289805">debate in the House of Commons</a> on the cost of going away during the school holidays has reignited a long-running concern about price banding in the tourism industry and the educational impact of children missing classes.</p>
<p>However, there is a need for a sense of proportion to the arguments about parents taking their children on holiday during term-time, and some context behind the social value of holidays, particularly for disadvantaged children. </p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221799/sfr10-2013.pdf">data released by the department of education</a> on pupil absence in English schools, showed that for the 2012-13 year, there was a slight 0.1% increase in overall absence rates compared to the previous year, caused by an increase in authorised absence due to illness. But trends in persistent absence are substantially lower than 2010-11. </p>
<p>The proportion of family holiday absences is very small, remaining stable at 0.5% of all possible sessions in 2012-13. A session is a half day, recorded by register. The data also shows that family holidays are the second highest proportion of absences by type, yet holidays account for only 11.4% of all recorded absences. Persistent absentees – defined as those who miss 46 sessions in a year – account for 22.4% of all absenteeism nationally. By far the most important reason for absence across all types of schools and age groups is authorised illness. </p>
<p>An important fact is that primary school age children and children with special needs skew the overall levels of absence for family holidays, whereas for secondary school children, the rate drops dramatically.</p>
<h2>Squeezed parents</h2>
<p>The recent commons debate was sparked by a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/school-holiday-price-facebook-rant-goes-viral-after-fathers-rage-at-expensive-breaks-9092843.html">Facebook “rant” by Paul Cookson</a>, about the cost of travel in school holidays, whose post soon went viral. It was linked to an <a href="http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46455">e-petition for a Commons debate</a> started in 2013 by Donna Thresher, signed by over 170,000 people. </p>
<p>The campaign focuses on the prices set by holiday companies, but the underlying problem is one of the huge variations in seasonal flows of demand within the tourism industry, caused in large part by the structure of the school holiday calendar setting. </p>
<p>This was raised during the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26289805">Commons debate in February when consumer affairs minister Jenny Willott</a> suggested that school holiday calendars could be “staggered”. This would be greatly benefit the tourism industry, help spread demand and lead to price reductions. </p>
<p>This practice works well in France where half–term holiday dates are staggered regionally to extend the low season demand in February, May and October. It also has the additional benefit of reducing the environmental and social impacts on destinations. </p>
<p>Yet the proposed change in policy in England to allow all schools to set their own dates from 2015 might only exacerbate the current problem. </p>
<h2>Clamping down on absenteeism</h2>
<p>The current debate also stems back to the implications of education minister Michael Gove’s introduction of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/legal-action-to-enforce-school-attendance">new guidance on the rules concerning authorised absence from school</a>. This aimed to clarify the previous rules, which it was argued had been widely misinterpreted to mean that parents were allowed to take their children out of school for a holiday for up to 10 days per year. </p>
<p>The new rules, introduced in September 2013 stated that head teachers were only allowed to authorise absence in “exceptional circumstances”, thereby excluding family holidays as a valid circumstance. The rate of fines had already been going up, and there were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26729787">52,370 £60 penalty notices</a> given out in 2012-13, up 27% on the previous year. </p>
<p>The government rightly argues that children should attend school to maximise their opportunities for learning, avoid disruption to teachers, other pupils and schools. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183445/DFE-RR171.pdf">rationale for the policy</a> points to established links between attendance and attainment, and student outcomes in terms of life-chances. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183445/DFE-RR171.pdf">government’s data shows</a> that there is a strong link between poverty and absenteeism and educational attainment. Poor children are much more likely to be persistent absentees, according to data from 2009-10, before the new fines were introduced. But when it comes to family holidays, the middle classes took twice the number of authorised absences than families in the lower social categories. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43303/original/dhg54d34-1394106368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reasons for absence distribution Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index, 2009-10</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Pupil Database</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Therefore it was mainly middle class families that used to utilise the authorised absence system to benefit from cheaper holidays in school term time. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13683500.2013.790878">Recent research</a> conducted on disadvantaged families with difficult circumstances has pointed to the skills development, changes in attitudes and better relationships between the family and school that come out of “social tourism” activity.</p>
<p>Holidays can make a positive contribution to children’s learning especially for children who are currently socially excluded. Charities that are working to improve access to holiday participation through social tourism such as the <a href="http://www.FamilyHolidayAssociation.org.uk">Family Holiday Association</a> point to the urgent need for joined-up thinking on educational policy on holiday absence. I would add that we need further, detailed research on the impact of family holidays on educational attainment across the social spectrum. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott McCabe receives funding from the Technology Strategy Board and the Family Holiday Association for research on the impacts of family holidays on well-being.</span></em></p>The recent debate in the House of Commons on the cost of going away during the school holidays has reignited a long-running concern about price banding in the tourism industry and the educational impact…Scott McCabe, Associate Professor in Tourism Management/Marketing, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214972013-12-17T01:45:22Z2013-12-17T01:45:22ZPunishing truancy is not the answer in Indigenous communities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37906/original/jjjxcx5z-1387234875.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We should acknowledge that the mainstream system of education doesn’t always know what is best for Aboriginal people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Neda Vanovac</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indigenous education has been prioritised by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the states at the <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/coag-aims-to-get-every-child-at-school/story-e6frfku9-1226782760398">recent COAG meeting</a>. The focus is on truancy, with a school attendance target of 90-100%. “Punitive” measures have been suggested, including truancy officers and extending income management.</p>
<p>But punitive measures are unlikely to affect Indigenous education outcomes in any meaningful way because they don’t address the roots of the problem. More importantly, punitive measures are another attempt to remove the agency of Aboriginal people.</p>
<h2>Education systems</h2>
<p>Aboriginal children are disconnected from the mainstream education system for a number of complex reasons. There are barriers to their success, such as poor sleep if they live in an overcrowded home; hunger affecting children’s focus; a lack of Indigenous role models as teaching staff; and the fact that Indigenous culture is <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=162553;res=AEIPT">marginalised in mainstream schooling</a>.</p>
<p>In families with no history of educational achievement, the culture of the education system needs to be learnt from scratch. Even if children are forced to attend school, there is no guarantee that they will learn what we want them to learn.</p>
<p>Many of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people I work with for my research extol the virtues of education. They agree with Abbott’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/dec/13/coag-tony-abbotts-parental-leave-disability-schemes-questioned">view</a> that a good education is crucial to a good start in life. But for others, the education system represents a culture and a society that does not value them. In response, they do not value the education system. </p>
<p>Punitive measures are based on the idea that Aboriginal people cannot make choices for themselves. They continue the belief that white society is the standard to be lived up to, a standard that can only be achieved through the education system. Forcing people to take part in this will not encourage trust or educational success. </p>
<h2>Making challenging choices</h2>
<p>A central sociological debate is the structure versus agency debate. On one hand we have structure – the idea that our lives are determined by society. Race, gender, and socioeconomic status and the like are determinants in the opportunities available to us. </p>
<p>On the other side we have agency: the idea that individuals make choices and shape their own lives. Sociology has long focused on the structures that determine our lives. </p>
<p>But there is recent interest in the idea of agency. Importantly, recent theories discuss the relationship <em>between</em> structure and agency, recognising that while our lives are shaped by the systems around us, we also have some capacity to shape our worlds. When people feel like they have no control, they will find ways to make choices, often in ways most of us find unappealing.</p>
<p>Racism is one structure that constrains Aboriginal choices. For some people, ensuring their children receive a rigorous education is one way they choose to respond to this structure. But when people feel alienated by the education system, they are not likely to make this choice. </p>
<p>Aboriginal people in this situation are faced with a lack of alternatives. They can choose to participate in an education system that does not meet their needs, or to avoid it. We need to recognise this as one way that Aboriginal people choose to exercise their agency.</p>
<p>Young people in particular feel like the school system is not relevant to their lives, or they might have bad relationships with their teachers or fellow students. Coupled with the kinds of socioeconomic and cultural barriers discussed above, the reasons for not attending school will not go away, no matter how punitive the measures adopted. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37909/original/sbrtxxnt-1387235223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37909/original/sbrtxxnt-1387235223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37909/original/sbrtxxnt-1387235223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37909/original/sbrtxxnt-1387235223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37909/original/sbrtxxnt-1387235223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37909/original/sbrtxxnt-1387235223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37909/original/sbrtxxnt-1387235223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young Indigenous people in particular may feel like the school system is not relevant to their lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Grenville Turner</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming the barriers</h2>
<p>If punitive measures won’t work, what is the solution? While truancy is a legitimate exercise of agency, education is also valuable in a number of ways.</p>
<p>One of the first steps, which should be taken immediately, is to break down the barriers to education. The challenges of overcrowding in Aboriginal communities, freedom from violence and regular access to healthy food are not likely to be resolved by income management or truancy officers.</p>
<p>Australia needs an education system that does more than pay lip service to Aboriginal culture and the history of colonisation in this country. Our education system should actively fight against stereotypes and racism. And, importantly, we need to recognise the cultural or practical barriers that Aboriginal children experience and do something about them. </p>
<p>Alternative styles of education deserve more research and more funding. For students who have disengaged, training programs that involve the community and “real life” settings are much more appropriate. </p>
<p>Alternatives like <a href="http://www.albanyfreeschool.org/">Free Schools</a>, where students have options about what they will learn, and which deliver content through hands-on activities, might be more appropriate than traditional schooling. This was <a href="http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/24039/">trialled</a> in Townsville in the 1970s by Eddie Koiki Mabo and Harry Penrith. They established the <a href="http://www.mabonativetitle.com/info/historyOfBCS.htm">Black Community School</a> because they felt the education system was failing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.</p>
<p>All of these alternatives require us to trust Aboriginal agency – to acknowledge that the mainstream system doesn’t always know what is best for Aboriginal people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theresa Petray does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Indigenous education has been prioritised by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the states at the recent COAG meeting. The focus is on truancy, with a school attendance target of 90-100%. “Punitive” measures…Theresa Petray, Lecturer in Sociology & Anthropology, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.