The Recording, Reporting, and Use of School Attendance Data by School Personnel in The Netherlands: Toe the Line or Take a New Path?

Abstract

Research signals the importance of promptly identifying and responding to emerging absenteeism, to prevent severe and chronic absenteeism. Prompt identification and response relies upon a good system for recording, reporting, and using data related to students’ school attendance and absence. The current article provides an overview of law, policy, and practice in the Netherlands regarding the recording, reporting, and use of school attendance data. We then consider the ways in which current law, policy, and practice help and hinder the work of school personnel as they endeavour to promote attendance and reduce absenteeism. Thereafter, we propose modifications to current policy and practice that could enhance the prompt identification and response to emerging absenteeism. When school personnel have easy access to reliable attendance data, and when they become accustomed to using the data to inform their work to promote attendance and respond to absenteeism, they are in a stronger position to support positive developmental outcomes among young people.

The Unlearning of School Attendance: Ideas for Change

“…remind us that MD-MTSS frameworks for addressing attendance and absence are a work in progress, but they have potential, especially because the strategies that can be applied in each Tier have empirical support. Indeed, it is pleasing to see increased awareness and use of such frameworks to address attendance and absence (e.g., Barnes, 2020;Mitchell, 2021;Karel et al, 2022), suggesting that interested parties increasingly appreciate the importance of working on attendance, not only absence.…”

From Attendance Data to Student Support: International Practices for Recording, Reporting, and Using Data on School Attendance and Absence

“…The value of DSAA has been further amplified by the emergence of response-to-intervention models, such as the multidimensional multi-tiered system of supports model to promote school attendance and reduce school absenteeism (Kearney & Graczyk, 2014. These models, which are gaining increased attention in school settings (Karel et al, 2022), encourage close monitoring of DSAA to determine the effectiveness of school-wide approaches to promote attendance and prevent absence (Tier 1 in the model), to identify and support individual students and groups of students with acute/emerging/mild/moderate attendance problems or other risk for chronic/severe attendance problems (Tier 2 in the model), and to identify and support those displaying chronic/severe attendance problems (Tier 3 in the model).…”

“…Instead, each autonomous community has its own protocols and regulations. In the Netherlands, as Karel et al (2022) note, the Compulsory Education Act permits schools to categorise "worrisome authorised absences" as "other absenteeism." However, defining and identifying authorised absences that are worrisome pose challenges for school personnel and attendance officers.…”

“…A challenge for the field involves the trade-off between the complexity of the system for recording DSAA (i.e., the use of numerous codes for variations in attendance and absence), the information this provides, and the workload for those responsible for recording students' attendance and absence (see, for example, Karel et al, 2022).…”

“…In Denmark, schools are mandated to report data to the municipality and there is systematic reporting to a national databank (Sandhaug et al, 2022). The Netherlands also imposes reporting obligations on schools, monitored by the Inspectorate of Education (Karel et al, 2022). Other countries, such as Finland, have more flexible approaches without obligations or clear structures for schools to report data to the municipal level (Palmu et al, 2022).…”