You Can’t Punish Kids Into Showing Up to School

Ontario education minister Paul Calandra has a plan to tackle rising absenteeism in high schools across the province: punish students for missing classes. In his plan, attendance would count for up to 15 per cent of final marks for younger students and 10 per cent for students in the final two years of high school. But this stick-over-carrot strategy is a one-size-fits-all approach that ignores the reality behind why students miss school in the first place.

I’m an education policy researcher with two children, and this plan worries me. Many kids skip class not because they’re indifferent about their grades, but for a whole host of reasons that are often out of their control. I’ve heard from parents who are at their wits’ end, because their child experiences bullying or mental health issues that make school incredibly hard. Every morning, these kids will either dig in and refuse to go, or leave school after an hour, shaking and in tears. In my research, I’ve also heard the opposite: parents who’re dealing with their own personal issues and can’t get their children to school. Slashing these students’ grades by 15 per cent will do nothing to solve their problems and may further harm their academic progress—and, with it, their long-term well-being.

Chronic absenteeism—defined as a student missing at least 10 per cent of the school year—is on the rise in Canada, especially since the pandemic. In some districts in Newfoundland and New Brunswick, over half of high-schoolers are chronically absent. In my home province of Ontario, recent reporting revealed that fewer than half of high school students attended 90 per cent of their classes in 2024. 

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U.S. studies have tried to explain why absenteeism has risen since COVID. One study showed that one-third of teens didn’t see missing three weeks of school as a serious problem. Others have argued that, after getting used to online learning, students may not see in-person classes as the only way to make academic progress. During the pandemic, kids were encouraged to stay home if they had so much as a sniffle or a mild cough. We may be seeing a holdover of that.

It’s a troubling trend. Attendance is critical not only in student engagement and academic performance, but also in making friends, developing communication skills and creating the positive routines and habits that students carry with them into adulthood. For instance, research in Canada, including my own, found that kids who chronically skip classes are more likely to face unemployment and have lower incomes than their peers. Showing up for school means showing up for life.

Absenteeism is usually driven by a mix of individual, family, school and peer factors. Children might avoid school because of behavioural issues or learning challenges that make it hard to participate in school. They could be dealing with mental health issues which, in Ontario, have doubled among middle- and high school students over the last decade. Maybe the child is unhoused or has caregiving or earning responsibilities in their family. Absenteeism is strongly linked to social challenges like disability and low socio-economic status. According to data from the Toronto District School Board, kids in schools serving lower-income communities are almost twice as likely to be absent as those in schools serving more affluent areas.

Punishing kids without addressing root issues of absenteeism is not a viable solution, because it disproportionately affects students who are already struggling. For students who are getting low grades—probably partly because they’re missing school—a policy like Calandra’s leads to worse or even failing grades, which could hold them back from graduating, attending post-secondary school and participating in extracurriculars. And for students who already don’t care about their grades, a policy like this would make no difference. 

On the flip side, giving marks for attendance contributes to grade inflation—already a serious problem in schools—by rewarding students who already attend class on a regular basis. So, a student who’s attending class but performing poorly could receive a 15 per cent higher grade than someone who has worse attendance but performs higher on assessments. This makes it harder for teachers to distinguish how students are truly performing.

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There’s strong guidance on best practice from public health and education researchers. At the bare minimum, schools should prevent absences by clearly communicating the importance and expectation of attendance and creating an environment that encourages it. This includes recognizing good attendance, which could simply be letting a student choose the music for a work period or pick out a cool sticker, pencil or eraser to keep. Implementing routines and celebrations that promote engagement, such as welcoming students by name at the door each morning and after missing school, are also important. When a student is absent, teachers should directly communicate with their families, starting with an email inviting them to discuss the issue at parent-teacher night. 

To really address absenteeism, schools will likely need more resources. Some of the most promising approaches include adding fun, recreational activities as a sort of magnet for those who don’t find academics intrinsically interesting. In fact, a large initiative in 2010 involving 60,000 students in New York City found that partnering with community groups to bring recreational programming into schools helped reduce absenteeism across all student types, even the most vulnerable, like those experiencing homelessness. 

Solving absenteeism also means removing barriers for kids who are missing at least 10 per cent of the school year. Does the child need a referral of some sort? An intervention to address a bullying situation? Tutoring or extra help? For more extreme cases where students are missing 20 per cent or more of the school year, intensive case work including professional help may be needed to address certain health, housing and behavioural issues. This fulsome approach addresses the complex reasons for absenteeism. A simplistic, punitive, one-size-fits-all approach might only make things worse.

Kelly Gallagher-Mackay is an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University who researches education policy.

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