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Dr Jennifer Vadeboncoeur

Dr Vadeboncoeur is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Vadeboncoeur studies how children imagine, play, and interact morally. Her research focuses on imaginative play, re-engagement in alternative programs, and the moral dimensions of student-teacher relationships.

Maria A. Rogers

Maria A. Rogers is a Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Her research and clinical practice focuses on the relational health of children and youth in the school setting, particularly for those with neurodevelopmental disorders, like ADHD. Maria is co-founder and co-director of the Canadian School Attendance Partnership – a group of researchers and community groups working to address school attendance problems in Canada.

David Smith

David Smith is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa in Canada. He conducts research on school-based bullying prevention programs and school climate, and on the links between mental health and bullying. David is co-founder and co-director of the Canadian School Attendance Partnership – a group of researchers and community groups working to address school attendance problems in Canada.

Natasha McBrearty

Natasha McBrearty is a registered psychotherapist, health administrator, and doctoral candidate in public health in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Natasha is co-founder and co-director of the Canadian School Attendance Partnership – a group of researchers and community groups working to address school attendance problems in Canada.

Jess Whitley

Jess Whitley is a Professor of Inclusive Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Jess conducts research on school attendance and absenteeism, school inclusion/exclusion, mental health literacy, inclusive education policy, teacher preparation for inclusive education, and the wellbeing of children and youth with mental health issues. Jess is co-founder and co-director of the Canadian School Attendance Partnership – a group of researchers and community groups working to address school attendance problems in Canada.

Information in the menus below was updated in April 2025. To contribute information that may be of interest to others in your country, please contact your country’s hosts: Jennifer Vadeboncoeur (j.vadeboncoeur@ubc.ca), Maria Rogers (maria.rogers@carleton.ca), Jess Whitley (jwhitley@uottawa.ca), David Smith (David.Smith@uottawa.ca), or Natasha McBrearty (nmcbr057@uottawa.ca).

The Canadian School Attendance Partnership (CSAP) is a newly formed community-university research collaboration based in Ottawa, Ontario, that is focused on investigating attendance-related issues among children and youth and its connections to important social, psychological, educational, and health outcomes that are vital to positive child development. The roots of CSAP were planted in 2017 via collaboration with Michael Hone and Natasha McBrearty at Crossroads Children’s Mental Health Centre in Ottawa and researchers at the University of Ottawa, namely, Dr. Jess Whitley, Dr. David Smith, and Dr. Maria Rogers. This initial collaboration grew and now, under the CSAP banner, includes many community affiliates throughout Eastern Ontario, such as the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Coordinated Access, and local school boards among many others. 

One of our primary goals we have set for this partnership is to foster international, multi-sectoral research collaborations with diverse stakeholders and lead to a better understanding of the social, psychological, and health challenges that interfere with school attendance and consequently hinder the educational progress of children and youth. To find out more about the work being done by CSAP, please visit the CSAP website. If you are interested in joining this research collaborative, please contact the CSAP executive team and we will be happy to speak to you about your interest our research collaborative. 

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.  

Summit Review:

In November 2024, CSAP hosted our second Annual Strategic Research Collaboration Summit on School Attendance. The summit encouraged thoughtful discussions and inquiries as to how we can better understand school attendance, particularly from the student perspective. We also learned about concrete solutions to promoting school attendance and how to effectively implement these strategies. Our partners' expertise and contributions are highly valued and it is through such partnerships that real change can be fostered. 

 

Recent Publications:

Reports

Mokhtarian, N., Smith, D.J., Whitley, J., Rogers, M., McBrearty, N. (2024). Roll call: A scoping review for school attendance problems among youth. (Full-Text).

Smith, D.J., Mokhtarian, N., Whitley, J., Rogers, M., & McBrearty, N. (2022). Roll call: A scoping review for knowledge synthesis of literatures pertaining to school attendance problems. (Evidence Brief) (Full-Text).

Peer Reviewed Publications

Klan, A., & Whitley, J. (Pre-print). An exploration of school attendance problems experienced by children receiving mental health services. Educational and Child Psychology.

Rogers, M., & Aglukark, K. (2024). Supporting school attendance among Indigenous children and youth in Canada: A rapid review and call to action. First Peoples Child & Family Review.

Rogers, M., Klan, A., Oram, R., Krause, A., Whitley, J., Smith, D. J., & McBrearty, N. (2024). School absenteeism and child mental health: A mixed-methods study of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. School Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-09640-2

Non Peer Reviewed and Other Media

Carmen, T., & Rogers, M. A. (2024, Mar 27). Kids are missing more school since the pandemic. CBC News. Article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-absence-data-1.7156254; Video: https://youtu.be/59upyU2zdas?si=Tu4KGsY3ZgW35_qd

Dabaghi-Pacheco, O., & Rogers, M. A. (2024, Jan 8). Maria Rogers comments on Quebec students return to school after the strike. CBC News. (Video pt.1; pt.2)

Krause, A., Klan, A., Rogers, M., Tatartcheff-Quesnel, N., Whitley, J., & Smith, J.D. (2021). Student attendance and engagement: What have we learned from the pivot to virtual learning? Psynopsis, 43(3). https://cpa.ca/docs/File/Psynopsis/2021-Vol43-3/index.html#p=1 

Rogers, M. (2022, Dec 12). For the sake of our kids, we can't let absenteeism become normalized. The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-for-the-sake-of-our-kids-we-cant-let-absenteeism-become-normalized/

Whitley, J., & Saggers, B. (2022, Oct 31). School attendance problems are complex, and our solutions need to be as well. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/school-attendance-problems-are-complex-and-our-solutions-need-to-be-as-well-189849

  • 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.
  • 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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