For years, schools have worked hard to engage students, build strong communities, and create supportive learning environments. But lately, something has shifted. More students are missing school – sometimes for a day or two, sometimes for weeks at a time.
Ask any educator, and they’ll tell you: attendance is more than just a number. It’s a reflection of how students feel about learning, their sense of belonging, and the challenges they may be facing outside the classroom. When attendance drops, it’s often a sign of deeper issues – and right now, schools are seeing that pattern more than ever.
Why are students missing school?
While absenteeism has always been a challenge, recent data indicates a notable increase in chronic absenteeism, where students miss 10% or more of the school year. The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) reports that attendance rates declined from 93.5% in 2016 to 92.4% in 2019 for students in Years 1 to 6, and from 91.1% to 89.9% for students in Years 7 to 10 during the same period. By 2023, attendance for students in Years 1 to 10 had fallen to 88.6%, still below pre-pandemic levels¹.
The reasons for this decline are complex but often come back to several key areas:
- Student wellbeing and mental health – anxiety, disengagement, and post-pandemic shifts in behaviour have made it harder for some students to return to regular routines. A rapid literature review by AERO identified poor general health, mental health conditions, and adverse childhood experiences as significant factors affecting attendance².
- Family circumstances – economic pressures, housing instability, and family responsibilities can all play a role in attendance struggles. Reports indicate that housing crises have led to significant disruptions in children’s education, with some missing school due to unstable living conditions³.
- Changing attitudes toward school – some students, particularly in older year levels, feel disconnected from traditional learning models and question the value of daily attendance. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) highlights that a one-size-fits-all approach to improving attendance is ineffective, suggesting the need for more tailored and engaging educational experiences⁴.
- Disparities among student groups – Indigenous students have consistently lower attendance rates than non-Indigenous students, and the gap has widened over the past decade. In 2023, the attendance rate for Indigenous students remained well below the national average, raising concerns over long-term education outcomes⁵.
Independent Schools Australia (ISA) has also noted that the diversity within the independent school sector requires nuanced approaches to address attendance issues effectively. They emphasise the importance of understanding the unique contexts of different schools to implement successful interventions⁶.Schools are already working hard to address these issues, but with over extended resources and growing workloads, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stay ahead of the problem before it develops into long-term disengagement. The reality is that absenteeism doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all solution. Schools are trying different approaches – some more effective than others – but without real-time data and targeted intervention, many students continue to slip through the cracks.
How schools are responding
Educators are constantly adapting, testing new strategies to keep students engaged and in class. Some of the approaches schools are using include:
- Track wellbeing concerns – record behaviour patterns, student health details, incident reports, and interventions in one central place.
- Identify broader trends – connect attendance data with behaviour and wellbeing insights to spot emerging patterns.
- Strengthen teacher collaboration – share student information across teams to ensure staff are aligned in supporting at-risk students.
- Monitor and manage student needs – create watchlists for specific students or cohorts and use custom templates to track key wellbeing markers.
- Keep families informed – notify parents about student wellbeing and behaviour to foster a supportive school-home connection.
However, without accurate data, many of these efforts remain reactive rather than preventative. Schools need the right tools to help them track trends, spot early warning signs, and take action to prevent students’ long-term disengagement. Tools like attendance tracking, predictive insights, and early alerts allow educators to act before patterns become problems.
Why early intervention matters
The longer a student is absent, the harder it is to re-engage them. Research indicates that chronic absenteeism is linked to lower academic achievement and higher dropout rates. Schools need clear insights into attendance trends to ensure the right support reaches the right students at the right time⁷.
How Compass helps schools take action
Compass Attendance: A real-time approach to monitoring absenteeism
An intuitive digital roll marking and centralised attendance management system, Compass Attendance, provides schools with real-time tracking and streamlined reporting, allowing them to:
- Identify patterns early – use unique attendance layering and data visualisation to spot at-risk students before disengagement occurs.
- Automate follow-ups – customisable triggers and automated SMS alerts keep families informed, with quick links for carers to submit absence notes.
- Generate compliance reports – ensure reporting aligns with government requirements, such as recent VIC government updates.
- Seamlessly integrate with timetables – sync attendance with major timetabling systems to track students across classes, arrivals, departures, and other activities.
- Enable intelligent roll updates – automatically adjust for absences, late arrivals, and other movements to maintain accurate records.
- Provide simple attendance reporting – offer a clear view of individual student attendance percentages.
With clear data on who is attending and who is missing, schools can identify trends early and intervene before attendance drops below ideal levels.
Compass Chronicle: Understanding the ‘why’ behind absenteeism
Attendance numbers alone don’t tell the full story. Schools need to know why students are missing class – and that’s where Compass Chronicle helps.
- Track wellbeing concerns – record behaviour patterns, student health details, incident reports, and interventions in one central place.
- Identify broader trends – connect attendance data with behaviour and wellbeing insights to spot emerging patterns.
- Strengthen teacher collaboration – share student information across teams to ensure staff are aligned in supporting at-risk students.
- Monitor and manage student needs – create watchlists for specific students or cohorts and use custom templates to track key wellbeing markers.
- Keep families informed – notify parents about student wellbeing and behaviour to foster a supportive school-home connection.
By linking attendance with student wellbeing, schools get the full picture, making it easier to support students holistically.
Practical steps to re-engage students and involve parents
Bringing students back into the classroom isn’t just about tracking absences – it’s about creating a culture where attendance feels valuable. Schools can:
- Use proactive parent communication – real-time updates ensure families stay engaged in their child’s attendance.
- Make learning relevant – personalised approaches and flexible learning models keep students connected.
- Celebrate progress – acknowledge and reward improved attendance.
- Empower teachers with insights – Give educators the right data to guide conversations and interventions.
By taking these steps – and using the right tools to support them – schools can make meaningful progress in tackling absenteeism.
Final thoughts: A shared responsibility
Every student matters, and so does every school day. With the right data and strategies, schools can rebuild strong attendance habits and support student success.
If your school is looking for a smarter way to track, manage, and improve attendance, let’s start the conversation today.
Resources
- School attendance: New insights from AERO
- Barriers to school attendance and reasons for student absence
- Adelaide homeless crisis costing kids in classroom
- Boosting Indigenous school attendance
- Bush Summit 2024: Truancy on the rise particularly among indigenous
- Submission to Inquiry into School Refusal
- School attendance: New insights from AERO
