Completed Projects

Research projects underway are described in ‘Current Projects‘. As projects reach completion they are summarized here, with links to the publications arising from the projects.

INSA Projects

Anthology (2020-2021)

INSA was delighted to work with founding member Malin Gren Landell, and the Jerring Foundation in Sweden (Jerringfonden), to prepare a research update on school attendance problems. INSA, through its world-wide scope, led the efforts in commissioning scholars of high academic repute for this anthology. The authors of the anthology are all distinguished researchers in the field and represent different disciplines, such as psychology, social work, education, and psychiatry. In their respective articles they outline results and conclusions based on studies conducted in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United States. Access the book here. For further information contact Dr Malin Gren Landell.

Knowing What Works (2019-2021)

INSA members in the Netherlands collaborated on a study titled 'Knowing What Works' (Weten Wat Werkt), supported by the 'Dutch National Expertise Team for School Refusal' (Landelijk KennisTeam Schoolweigering). This was a national survey of Tier 3 interventions for school refusal, to identify those aspects of intervention which professionals, parents, and youth describe as important and helpful. One of the themes of the study was 'collaboration', especially collaboration between professionals from education and mental health. A short video draws attention to some of the key aspects of collaboration. In the video, Chantal (from education) and Joost (from mental health care) explain how they collaborate when working in an alternative educational program (the Link in Almelo) for adolescents displaying school refusal. They discuss the strengths and difficulties in their collaboration by means of a 'marriage metaphor'. For information about the video or the 'Know What Works' project, contact Marije Brouwer-Borguis at m.brouwer@swv2301.nl. The full report of 'Knowing What Works' can be downloaded here. Scientific journal articles are in peparation.

Frontiers in Psychology and Frontiers in Education (2019-2020)

Members of INSA contributed numerous articles to a Research Topic within Frontiers in Psychology and Frontiers in Education. The Research Topic is titled “School Attendance and Problematic School Absenteeism in Youth”, edited by Christopher Kearney, Carolina Gonzálvez, and David Heyne.

Letter to the Editor (2020)

INSA's founding members prepared a Letter to the Editor of European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, specifying three key challenges that currently demand INSA’s attention. Click here to read the letter or visit the ‘Journal Articles’ and select 2020.

Special issue (2019)

Members of INSA contributed articles to a special issue of the European Journal of Education and Psychology, published in 2019. See 'Special series, issues, and sections’ within ‘Journal Articles’. Contact: Carolina Gonzálvez (carolina.gonzalvez@ua.es).

Other Projects

2022

Report titled 'Gaining grads: Targeting school-based social supports & adaptations to the school breakfast program to increase high school graduation rates in Cleveland County high schools', prepared by Hannah Archer, Grace Carstens, Hannah Hicks, Ashley Kelley, and Emily Mccormick, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2022.
Report titled 'Imperfect Attendance: Toward a fairer measure of student absenteeism', prepared by Jing Liu, 2022. Washington D.C.: Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Report titled 'Lost but not forgotten: The reality of severe absence in schools post-lockdown', prepared by the Centre for Social Justice, UK, January 2022.

2021

Report titled 'An empirical examination of the effects of suspension and suspension severity on behavioral and academic outcomes', prepared by Christina LiCalsi, David Osher, and Paul Bailey, American Institutes for Research, August 2021.
Report titled 'A systematic, whole-school approach to mental health and well-being in schools in the EU', prepared by Carmel Cefai, Celeste Simões, and Simona Caravita, 2021.
Report titled 'Knowing what works: A roadmap for school refusal interventions based on the views of stakeholders', prepared by David Heyne, Marije Brouwer-Borghuis, Jan Vermue, Corine van Halvoirt, and Georgine Aerts, November 2021.
Report titled 'Does outreach encouraging families to engage with community-based organizations increase engagement and school attendance?', prepared by The Lab @ DC, October 2021.
Report titled 'Problematic school absenteeism: Improving systems and tools', prepared by a Nordic collaboration.
The KiTeS project stands for 'Kids & Teens at School'. This was a collaboration between Monash University in Australia, Warwick University in the UK, and Leiden University in the Netherlands. The project examined school attendance problems among children and young people with an intellectual disability across mainstream and special schools. The three aims of the study were: (1) To establish the rate of school attendance problems in students with an intellectual disability; (2) To build a profile of the types of school attendance problems (e.g. school refusal, school withdrawal, truancy, school exclusion); and (3) To identify the factors associated with different types of school attendance problems. For further information contact Glenn Melvin.

2020

Report titled 'Are students present and accounted for? An examination of state attendance policies during the Covid-19 pandemic', prepared by Attendance Works, December 2020.
Report titled 'Seeking a balance: Conversations with policy makers and influencers about intervening upstream to prevent school exclusions in the context of Covid-19 and beyond: Insights from the Excluded Lives 'Policy Conversations'', prepared by Alice Tawell, Hilary Emery, Harry Daniels, Ian Thompson and Jill Porter, University of Oxford, October 2020.
Report titled 'Building a grad nation: Progress and challenge in raising high school graduation rates', Civic Enterprises, Everyone Graduates Center at the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.
Repot titled 'Out-of-School and Out-of-Data? Out-of-School Learners in the European Agency Statistics on Inclusive Education (EASIE) – Conceptual Working Paper', prepared by A. Watkins and A. Lenárt, European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education.

2019

Report titled 'Working with young people to understand bullying and self-exclusion from school: Final report', prepared by Niamh O'Brien and Anna Dadswell, Anglia Ruskin University Chelmsford, October 2019.

2018

Report titled 'A review of educational provisions for children unable to attend school for medical reasons', UCL Institute of Education.
Report titled 'Building a grad nation: Progress and challenge in raising high school graduation rates', Civic Enterprises, Everyone Graduates Center at the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.
Report titled 'Data matters: Using chronic absence to accelerate action for student success', Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center.
Report titled 'School-based interventions for reducing disciplinary school exclusion: A systematic review' by Sara Valdebenito, Manuel Eisner, David Farrington, Maria Ttofi, and Alex Sutherland, The Campbell Collaboration.

2017

Report titled 'Showing up: Disparities in chronic absenteeism between students with and without disabilities in traditional public schools', by M. A., Gottfried, L. Stiefel, A. E. Schwartz, and B. Hopkins.

2016

Report titled 'Monitoring education participation: Framework for monitoring children and adolescents who are out of school or at risk of dropping out'. UNICEF Series on Education Participation and Dropout Prevention (Vol 1). Geneva: UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

2015

Report titled 'Building a grad nation: Progress and challenge in ending the high school dropout epidemic', Civic Enterprises, Everyone Graduates Center at the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.
Report titled 'Interventions for improving learning outcomes and access to education in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review', which includes attendance as an outcome.

2014

Report by Attendance Works titled 'Absences add up: How school attendance influences student success'. "This state-by-state analysis of national testing data demonstrates that students who miss more school than their peers consistently score lower on standardized tests, a result that holds true at every age, in every demographic group, and in every state and city tested."
OECD report on the PISA test, titled ‘Who are the school truants?’ PISA is the Programme for International Student Assessment, “a triennial international survey which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students.”

2013

Report titled 'Student attendance and educational outcomes: Every day counts'. A report prepared for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, by Kirsten J. Hancock, Carrington C.J. Shepherd, David Lawrence and Stephen R. Zubrick.
Final Report Summary for WE-STAY (Work Together to Stop Truancy Among Youth)

2005

Report titled 'Parents’/carers’ attitudes towards school attendance'. A report prepared for the Department for Education and Skills, by D. Dalziel and K. Henthorne.

2003

Report titled 'School phobia and school refusal: Research into causes and remedies'. A report prepared for the National Foundation for Educational Research, by Tamsin Archer, Caroline Filmer-Sankey, and Felicity Fletcher-Campbell.