The menus below were updated in February 2022. If you have information to share with others in your country, please contact your country’s hosts: Johanne Jeppesen Lomholt (johanhj@psy.au.dk) or Daniel Bach Johnsen (dj@konfront.io).
-
People, groups, and organizations
Not for profit
- The Danish Ministry of Education (Undervsiningsministeriet)
- Center for the Psychological Treatment of Children and Adolescents (CEBU), a research center conducting research regarding psychological treatment for children and adolescents
- Børns Vilkår. Since 1977, Børns Vilkår, has worked together with supporters and partners, for children's right to a safe childhood.
- Fonden Drive, is a non-profit organization working with children and adolescents with school refusal. They work psychologically and pedagogically with the primary reason for students refusal and provide the necessary support for the students to return to a stable schooling.
- Mikael Thastum is a Professor at the Institute of Psychology at Aarhus University. His research interests include development of psychological treatment for children and adolescents with various psychological problems, among them school attendance problems.
- Johanne Jeppesen Lomholt is a Associate Professor at the Institute of Psychology at Aarhus University. Her research interests include well-being of children and adolescents, clinical psychological research, school attendance problems.
- Jonas Yde Højgaard conducts research on how absence affects school, children and parents.
For profit
- ‘Generator: Pædagogik og Psykologi’, an organization providing workshops and seminars.
- ‘Konfront.io’ is a small tech company working with the digitalization of psychological treatment and counselling and utilize Virtual Reality.
-
Current and upcoming activities and achievements
- 2022: New pubplication about youth with school attendance problems in Denmark: Johnsen DB, Lomholt JJ, Heyne D, Jeppesen P, Jensen MB, Silverman WK, et al. (2022). Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of youths and parents seeking psychological treatment for school attendance problems. PLoS ONE 17(1): e0261449.
- 2022: Workshop: Kursus i skolevægring og problematisk skolefravær for fagpersoner v/ Daniel Bach Johnsen og Kristian Bech Arendt.
- 2021 - ongoing: Workshop: Bag om Skolefravær v/ Tine Basse Fisker.
- 2019 - 2023. Workshop: Skolegang og Skolevægring v/ Børnekataloget.
- 2021 - ongoing: Eleven municipalities in Denmark are in the process of implementing the Back2School manual for the benefit of children and young people with worrying absence from school. The municipalities have received funding from the Ministry of Children and education. An overview over the municipalities.
- 2021 - ongoing: Aarhus Municipality has implemented Back2School. The implementation has been in collaboration with CEBU, Aarhus University.
- 2021 - ongoing: The manual for the Back2School program is now publicly available. The psychological treatment aimed at treating school attendance problems can be acquired through CEBUs homepage.
- 2020 - 2023: Model for samarbejde og indsatser til børn og unge med bekymrende skolefravær, The National Board of Social Services has allocated funding of 23 million DKK, to create a model for cooperation between different ppulic services to thwart the development of emerging school attendance problems.
- 2019 April - ongoing: The Back2School project is concluded. Preparations are being made to analyse the data and prepare the results for publication.
- An intervention for children with school absenteeism has beguin in Region Syddanmark.
-
Past activities and achievements
2021
- 2021 December: DAFOLO Conference: Skolefravær v/ DAFOLO.
- 2021 November 10: Nordiske online konference om skolefravær.
- 2021 August: Seminar hosted by Livsmod, for practitioners in North Zealand working with youths with School Attendance Problems.
- 2021 April and September: Workshop for practitioners about implementing Back2School
- 2021 February: Konfront.io developed a free online self-help course for youths struggling to return to school following a long lockdown due to COVID-19.
- 2021 January: Konfront.io and Psychologist and Ph.D. Daniel Bach Johnsen hosted a free webinar, introducing the latest research within the field of school attendance problems, and methods for handling school attendance problems in schools. Approximately 700 people participated the webinar, from all over Denmark.
2020
- 2020 November: Problematisk skolefravær: Hvornår er skolefravær et problem, og hvordan kan problemet løses?, seminar and workshop including an introduction to school attendance problems and possible solutions to youths school attendance problems.
- 2020 November: Back2School - Konference om skolefravær.
- 2020: Videnskursus om skolegang og skolevægring, seminar including an introduction to Danish school law, and interventions helping youths with school attendance problems.
2019
- 2019 September: New Danish special issue on school absenteeism for social workers.
- 2019 April: Two conferences on school absenteeism: Elevfravær – strategier og indsatser. Dafolo.
- 2019 March: “I don’t want to go to school!!!”(Danish: Jeg vil ikke I skole!!!) Conference in Aarhus focusing on school attendance.
- 2019 February: How do we help Children with Problematic school absenteeism? Experiences from the Back2School-project (johanhj@psy.au.dk)
- 2019 January: Publication describing the Back2School protocol. The Back2School modular cognitive behavioral intervention for youths with problematic school absenteeism: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial (mikael@psy.au.dk)
2018
- 2018 November: The Danish Ministry of Education announced a revision of the "absence proclamation"in the primary schools in Denmark.
- 2018 November: The Danish Ministry of Education published a national report of student absence in the country’s public schools in 2017/2018.
- 2018 October: The Danish Ministry of Education announced a proclamation for reducing school absence in Danish high schools.
- 2018 October: Two conferences on school absenteeism: Elevfravær – strategier og indsatser. Dafolo.
- 2018 May: School attendance conference.The municipality of Odense held a conference with a focus on cross-sectional collaboration to enhance stable school attendance. See this link for the program.
2017
- 2017 August: Start of the Back2School project, a new psychological intervention targeting school attendance problems (SAP) in Aarhus Municipality. Back2School was developed and is being tested by the Center for the Psychological Treatment of Children and Adolescents (CEBU). The effect of Back2School is being measured against treatment as usual in Aarhus Municipality.
- 2017 June: Back2School Pilot. A feasibility study of a psychological intervention called Back2School was conducted, and 22 families completed the intervention. The intervention significantly increased attendance, and reduced emotional problems.
- 2017 May: Metodecenteret published a Danish literature review of problematic school absenteeism, risk factors, and interventions.
2016
- 2016-2018: Come Back app. Bornholm municipality implemented an app, Come Back, in their schools. The goal was to reduce school absence among adolescents.
-
Helpful links and other resources
- Report by the Nordic ERASMUS project: Problematic School Absenteeism- Improving Systems and Tools.
- Book: Lund, G. E. (2021). Fra Fravær Til Fællesskab. Hvad kan skolen gøre? Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
- Book: Nors, M. (2021). Forebyg Skolefravær. Frederikshavn, Denmark: Dafolo.
- The Danish Ministry of Education (UVM) regularly update their webpage with news related to schools and education. Resources and statistics from public schools in all municipalities in Denmark are also available.
- The National Board of Social Services (Socialstyrelsen). The Board aims at actively contributing to a knowledge based Social Policy, which furthers effective social initiatives for the benefit of citizens. The goal is to make social knowledge work. This work also includes work relating to school attendance.
- Metodecenteret: Danish literature review of problematic school absenteeism, risk factors, and interventions.
- Danish translated questionnaires used to assess issues related to school attendance problems are available via CEBU (Center for the Psychological Treatment of Children and Adolescents)
- Book: Skolens fraværende børn: Årsager og indsatser [Children absent from school: Causes and actions] Andersen, M. J., Berthelsen, L., Fisker, T. B., Hansen, M. F., Hansen, H. R., Havik, T., …. & Thastum, M. (2019). Frederikshavn: Dafolo.
