Beyond the excused/unexcused absence binary: classifying absenteeism through a voluntary/involuntary absence framework

Policy With an Asterisk: Understanding How Staff in Alternative School Settings Negotiate a Mandatory Attendance Policy to Meet the Needs of Their Students

“…Accommodation differs from increasing attendance by acknowledging that continued attendance is very difficult for some students. The life circumstances of chronically absent youths may be so difficult that the students are involuntarily absent through no fault of their own (Birioukov, 2016). Differentiating between voluntary (motivationally-based) and involuntary (structurally-based) absences allows for recognition that some youths may wish to attend, but struggle doing so due to issues in their lives.…”

“…Failure to meet these expectations can result in fines, driver's license suspension, probation, and jail sentences for both the absentee and their family. The expectation that students attend school consistently regardless of life circumstances is problematic, as it treats all absences as a voluntary decision by the student (Birioukov, 2016). This conception of inflexible attendance policies trickles down from the Ministry of Education to the local school boards, including the one sampled for this research.…”

“…Excused absences refer to sickness and travel, whereas unexcused absences encompass all others. A body of literature has highlighted the ineffectiveness of this classification, as there is much difficulty in discerning a truly excused absence, as well as the discrepancies in how schools classify absences (Birioukov, 2016;Heyne et al, 2019). Thus, a student from a privileged background may be "excused" to miss school to go on holiday, whereas a youth in challenging circumstances will be categorized as having an "unexcused" absence if they miss school to stand in line at the soup kitchen.…”

“…Following, we explore the issue of absenteeism and frame it as occurring for voluntary and involuntary reasons (Birioukov, 2016). We then describe the compulsory attendance policies in Canada and in the sampled school board, where we then discuss the ways in which alternative school educators navigate these policies.…”

The Relationship Between Positive Academic and Behavior Support Services: School Failure Prevention Plan

“…School districts define student attendance as a schedule of calendar days students are required to attend throughout a school year (SY), whereas absenteeism is a term used for students who miss a substantial amount of school days throughout an academic year (Reid, 2012). When underachieving urban middle school students are failing, they often lose self-interest in school, which increases their chances of absenteeism and high school dropout rates (Birioukov, 2016). Similarly, when observing absenteeism in low-achieving students, Reid (2012) reported that such students held the behavioral traits of poor academic self-concepts, poor self-directedness, poor-regard, and low self-esteem.…”