Integrating Systemic and Analytic Approaches to School Attendance Problems: Synergistic Frameworks for Research and Policy Directions

School refusal: mapping the literature by bibliometric analysis

School refusal is considered a risk factor for academic, social, and personal situations, such as school dropouts. Studies have been carried out on school refusal for almost 50 years. However, general research trends have not been mapped yet. This study summarizes the bibliometric analysis of scientific collaborations and prevalence across locations by country and institution, leading researchers, journals, and trends (keywords) in school refusal research. The United States, Japan, Spain, and England are the countries that stand out in terms of school refusal. It can be said that the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, and Frontiers in Psychology are important journals that publish on school refusal. Researchers named Christopher A. Kearney, Carolina Gonzálvez, Jose Manuel Garcia-Fernandez, David A. Heyne, and Brigit M. Van Widenfelt have been found to have more intensive studies and collaborations on school refusal. The authors keywords common use for school refusal; are truancy, school absenteeism, adolescence, school attendance, school phobia, autism spectrum disorder, and bullying. The findings show that school refusal is a current research area, and scientific collaborations continue to be established. The findings reveal all the details of the school refusal research.

Who is absent from school when? An optimal matching analysis of within-year variation in the timing of school absences

Although school absenteeism trajectories can be studied through various parameters and dimensions, such as the amount of school absenteeism, sequence, and timing, most studies have only focused on changes in the amount of school absenteeism. However, when investigating the nature of school absenteeism, an analysis cannot be restricted to just changes in the amount of school absenteeism. In this article, I show how applying optimal matching on time-stamped half days of missed school (n = 6260) enables researchers, policy makers, and school professionals to uncover socio-temporal regularities in trajectories of non-attendance (i.e., the degree to which groups of pupils are absent at the same time and in the same rhythm within a given school year). Results indicated that students fall into five types of trajectories, and that these are highly predictive of student's examination results at the end of the school year. In the Discussion, I elaborate on the implications of these findings.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Underrepresented Youth With School Attendance Problems: Integration With Systems of Care, Advocacy, and Future Directions

School attendance problems (SAPs) include full-day and partial absences (eg, missing classes, tardiness) as well as difficulties going to or remaining in school. SAPs also include nonparticipation in distance/hybrid learning formats or lack of access to necessary technology or equipment. SAPs are particularly prevalent among students of color, students in poverty, students with disabilities, English language learners, and migrant populations. SAPs are often part of a complicated clinical picture of mental health (eg, emotional, neurodevelopmental, conduct disorders) and somatic (eg, abdominal, cardiovascular, respiratory problems) challenges. These challenges are exacerbated by disparities in socioeconomic status, childhood adversities, family structure, and neighborhood-level factors that have an impact on mental health outcomes.¹ SAPs have serious negative consequences in childhood (eg, lower academic achievement, greater risk of dropout) and in adulthood (eg, lower lifetime earning potential, greater occupational and mental health problems). Unfortunately, underrepresented youth with SAPs often have less access to proper care, especially psychiatric care.

A multi-tiered systems of support blueprint for re-opening schools following COVID-19 shutdown

The COVID-19 pandemic will create enormous disruptions for youth and families with respect to economic and health status, social relationships, and education for years to come. The process of closing and intermittently reopening schools adds to this disruption and creates confusion for parents and school officials who must balance student educational progress with health and safety concerns. One framework that may serve as a roadmap in this regard is a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) model. This article briefly addresses four main domains of functioning (adjustment, traumatic stress, academic status, health and safety) across three tiers of support (universal, targeted, intensive). Each section draws on existing literature bases to provide specific recommendations for school officials who must address various and changing logistical, academic, and health-based challenges. The recommendations are designed to be flexible given fluctuations in the current crisis as well as focused on maximum-value targets. An MTSS approach adapted for contemporary circumstances can also be used to help address longstanding disparities that have been laid bare by the pandemic.