The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) has looked at the Education Review Office report released in November 2022 on school attendance. ODI focused on the attendance barriers for disabled children.
According to ODI, 8% of the student sample surveyed were disabled (158 students) and 12% of the parent sample surveyed had a disabled child (134 parents).
Reasons given for low attendance rate for disabled students included:
- Resources and participation barriers
- Health and Wellbeing concerns
- Bullying
- Not being able to or don't want to participate in activities
- School work is too hard
- Don't feel like being around their classmates
- Students not recognising the importance of attending school
- Disabled learners have lower engagement and connection to the school
The report offers general recommendation around improving attendance which include, schools monitoring attendance, making learning more engaging and ensuring students have an understanding of the importance of school.
To read more about ODI's finding you can link to their page, Missing out - why aren't our children going to school.