This report examines the complexities of school non-attendance through a school refusal lens, exploring its multifaceted causes and the resulting impact on students, families and schools. The report highlights the need to differentiate types of absenteeism, and sets a clear and constructive path forward. It calls for urgent national action to tackle Australia’s growing school...

The Excluded Initiative was a campaign to reduce school exclusions, that is, to help schools build their own inclusion capacity and tackle the root causes of suspensions and exclusions. The initiative reached over 500 young people, over half of whom were eligible for free school meals and a third had special educational needs or disabilities...

This report looks at how the last Labour government in the United Kingdom of the late 1990s and 2000s addressed the issue of school absence. It makes 12 recommendations on how the government should tackle school absence now, and draws out wider lessons for the approach to mission-led government. It finds the single biggest cause...

An analysis of the economic impacts of suspending students with disability from school in Queensland. It presents key findings, data sources and an overview of the qualitative impacts considered in the analysis. It finds children with disability are disproportionately represented in school suspensions in Queensland and across Australia.

This report presents the findings from a rapid literature review of the barriers to school attendance and reasons for student absence. It discusses the strength of evidence related to barriers and reasons for absence across the different systems influencing young people’s development.