Intensive interventions to decrease school absenteeism: a systematic literature search with categorization

Key message

School absenteeism is a common and serious problem. Pupils miss a lot of education and it can result in missing graduation grades. High absenteeism rates are also a risk factor for drop-out from senior high-school. In Norway, one out of four students drop out of senior high-school. Various interventions can assist pupils and students attend school and complete their education.   

We examined which secondary- and primary studies exist about the effectiveness of intensive interventions aiming to increase attendance, for students with high absenteeism rates, on absenteeism.

We conducted a systematic literature search with categorization of identified, relevant studies. It is a type of systematic review about what type of literature exists about a specific question, with included publications sorted into categories and presented in lists.

49 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included:

• We included 20 literature reviews and 29 controlled studies.
• Most studies were published in the last decade.
• The 29 primary studies were from 11 different countries: 52% were from the USA. There was one study from Norway.
• Most of the studies addressed students with truancy or school refusal problems.
• The studies addressed a variety of intervention, including cognitive behavior therapy, motivational interventions and similar.

This systematic review shows that there are a number of studies, including literature reviews, about the effectiveness of intensive interventions for students with high absenteeism rates.