Information in the menus below was updated in April 2021. To contribute information that may be of interest to others in your country, please contact your country’s host: Jennifer Vadeboncoeur (j.vadeboncoeur@ubc.ca).
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People, groups, and organizations
Not for profit
- Youth Mental Health Canada is a “grassroots, youth-driven and led non-profit organization focused on education and advocacy for youth mental health change.” This organization does research on school refusal and offers workshops on the issue.
- Pathways to Education is a national organization that aims to increase graduation rates in low socioeconomic communities throughout Canada. Although their primary focus is on dropout prevention, the group does extensive work to decrease absenteeism.
- Anxiety Canada is an organization that is focused on alleviating and helping individuals cope with anxiety related issues.
- The Ontario Association for Counselling and Attendance Services is an organization that involves provincial attendance counselors who work with students with high levels of absenteeism.
- Restorative Resolutions is a company that offers workshops and coaching for staff to manage absenteeism, as well as some resource on absenteeism.
- School Mental Health Ontario is an organization that works with school districts to support student mental health, including issues pertaining to school anxiety.
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Current and upcoming activities and achievements
- 2021: publication on attendance. Kennedy-Tuerner, K., Serbin, L.A., Stack, D.M., Lendingham, J.E., & Schwartzman, A.E. (in press). Beyond educational attainment: The role of achievement and school absence in the development of criminal justice involvement. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science.
- 2021: publication on attendance. Sun, L., Semovski, V., & Stewart, S.L. (2021). A study of risk factors predicting school disruption in children and youth living in Ontario. Canadian Journal of Psychology.
- 2021 February: publication on attendance. McGeown Plant, A., & Donlevy, K.J. (2021). Raising the compulsory age of attendance in Manitoba: Uneven results. Interchange, 52, 79-99.
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Past activities and achievements
- 2020 June: Report on absenteeism - Fowler, T.A., & McDermott, M. (2020). How can school systems weave together Indigenous ways of knowing and response-to-intervention to reduce chronic absenteeism in Alberta? Final report. University of Calgary.
- 2020 June: The Ontario Association for Counselling and Attendance Services will be holding its annual conference.
- 2020 April: Dissertation on absenteeism - Birioukov, A. (2020). Attending to absentees: An investigation of how four urban alternative schools respond to absenteeism[Unpublished doctoral thesis]. University of Ottawa.
- 2020: Publication on absenteeism - Chard, C., Wigfield, D., & Potwarka, L. (2020). Innovative youth tournament schedules to minimize school absenteeism: An exploratory study. Sports Innovation Journal, 1, 1-17.
- 2020 February: Publication on absenteeism - Brown, S.R., Gallagher-Mackay, K., & Parekh, G. (2020). Redefining risk: Human rights and elementary school factors predicting post-secondary access. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28(21).
- 2020 February: Opinion piece written by John Wiens (Dean Emeritus at the Faculty of Education, University Manitoba) in the Winnipeg Free Press, titled “Student Absenteeism is Everybody’s Problem,” in which he comments about the difficulties associated with raising attendance.
- 2020 January: News article by Meghan Collie in the Globe and Mail titled “How Awarding Perfect Attendance Can Backfire on Children: Experts” that discusses concerns with praising students for attending school and giving out perfect attendance awards.
- 2019: Publication on absenteeism - Ward et al. (2019). Methods for detecting seasonal influenza epidemics using a school absenteeism surveillance system. BMC Public Health, 19(1).
- 2019 December: Publication on absenteeism - Birioukov-Brant & Brant-Birioukov (2019). Policy with an asterisk: Understanding how staff in alternative school settings negotiate a mandatory attendance policy to meet the needs of their students. Frontiers in Education.
- 2019 October: A chapter outlining Canada’s truancy rates as reported on PISA 2015 - OECD. (2019). Canada. In Education Policy Outlook 2019: Working Together to Help Students Achieve their Potential. OECD Publishing, Paris.
- 2019: Publication on absenteeism - Ogilvie et al. (2019). Association of school engagement, academic difficulties and school avoidance with psychological difficulties among adolescents admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 36, 419-427.
- 2019 June: Jamie Anderson (University of Calgary) presented a paper titled “Absenteeism as activism: When LGBTQ2S+ youth skip gym class” at the 2019 Canadian Society for the Study of Education
- 2019 June: Anton Birioukov-Brant (University of Ottawa) and Kiera Brant-Birioukov (University of British Columbia) presented a paper titled “Navigating the ethical dilemmas inherent in enforcing compulsory attendance policies” at the 2019 Canadian Society for the Study of Education.
- 2019 June: The Ontario Association for Counselling and Attendance Services held its second annual conference.
- 2019 May 31: Dr. Paul W. Bennet published a report entitled “Missing in action: School storm days, student absenteeism and the workplace.”
- 2019 May 2: The ‘Fix Our Schools’ group in Ontario link poor schools’ conditions to absenteeism.
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Helpful links and other resources
- Anxiety Canada has a number of resources concerning school anxiety and refusal.
- eMentalHealth, an initiative of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario has released a resource for school refusal and school phobia.
- HeretoHelp, a group of seven non-profit mental health and substance abuse non-profit organizations has a resource for school refusal.
- Sunnybrook Medical Health Science Centre has a resource on absenteeism and school refusal.
- The Alberta Education Office of Student Attendance and Re-engagement (OSAR) has a number of resources regarding school attendance. See this link.
- The Manitoba Ministry of Education has attendance related resources directed at educators, parents, and students. See this link.
- In 2017 the Nova Scotia Ministry of Education released its new attendance policy.
