Report

School Absence Tracker

Think tank: Centre for Social Justice

Author(s): Beth Prescott

October 17, 2024

This report from UK think tank the Centre for Social Justice offers a termly analysis of official data relating to absence from schools (Spring 2024).

Latest government data shows absence from schools now endemic. Severe absence up 12 per cent year from last year, 160 per cent up from pre-pandemic. One in five children remain persistently absent.

Today’s government data release on school attendance reveals that more than four years on from school closures during the pandemic, severe absence is back to near record levels.

The latest data, for Spring term 2024, shows that 157,038 children were severely absent from school, missing half or more of school time. This is an increase of 12.4 per cent compared to Spring term 2023 and 160.7 per cent higher than before the pandemic.

The data also reveals one in five children were persistently absent in Spring term 2024, missing ten per cent or more of school time. This is a 5.7 per cent increase compared to Spring term 2023 and 67.8 per cent higher than before the pandemic.