Why care experienced children miss school?
All children miss school sometimes but care experienced children may face particular barriers which make it more difficult for them to attend school.
No matter what the reason for missing school, all children have the right to an education. Children finding it difficult to go to school can be supported in lots of different ways.
Mental health needs
Anyone can struggle with their mental health. Some care experienced children may find their mental health is impacted by their life experiences. Coping with big changes, transitions, or difficult situations at home can cause stress, anxiety, and other mental health needs.
Some care experienced children may also have trauma or have faced Adverse Childhood Experiences which impact their mental health. For some children, this can mean they find it difficult to go to school.
Managing mental health needs may mean that children need time off school to rest and recover. Other children may attend school but find it difficult to concentrate, maintain friendships, or regulate their emotions. Some children may find they are triggered by the school environment or the expectations that come with it.
Understanding a child’s individual needs is important to supporting them to attend school. As with any additional need, working with the child and their support system can help to get the right support in place.
🔗 Find out more on our Enquire Missing school due to anxiety and other mental health needs page
Physical health needs
Like all other children, sometimes physical health needs mean that care experienced children can’t go to school or need more support to be able to attend. Whether short- or long-term, it’s important that a child’s school are aware of children’s physical health needs.
🔗 Find out more on our Enquire Missing school due to physical health needs page
Appointments and meetings
All children may have an occasional doctor’s appointment or dentist visit but care experienced children may be required to attend a wider range of appointments, including Children’s Hearing Panels and meetings with social work.
As well as impacting on a child’s time in the classroom, it is important to recognise the significant emotional impact of attending these meetings, where difficult, distressing, and life-changing decisions may be made about a child’s home life.
Where possible, these meetings should be arranged for outside of the school day, so that missing school can be avoided. Where this is not possible, it is important to consider what will be missed and the impact this may have on the child, their learning, and their engagement with wider school life. After meetings, children should be supported to return to school when works best for them.
🔗 Find out about Nyla’s experience of meetings and how they affected her education
▶️ Watch our short Navigate video about Making school a welcoming place
Exclusion from school
A child is excluded from school if they are asked to leave for any amount of time. By law, exclusion should be a last resort and there are strict procedures that schools should follow.
In practice, we know that these procedures are not always followed. If a child is asked to leave school for a ‘cooling off period’ or their parents/carers are asked to collect them early, this is also an exclusion.
Exclusion can have a particular impact on care experienced children, and this should be taken into account if an exclusion is being considered. Some care experienced children may be sensitive to rejection or feeling a loss of belonging or trust, which could impact their relationship with school and learning. For others, their home life or living situation may mean that an exclusion is especially difficult or unsafe.
🔗 For more information on exclusions, visit our Enquire Exclusion from school page
Difficulties with travel and transport
Sometimes, it can be the practicalities of getting to school that make it difficult for care experienced children to attend. There are lots of ways that this might manifest.
Family circumstances at home may mean having to find (and fund) your own way to school. Moving placements can mean longer journeys to and from school, with time needed to identify and navigate new transport links.
No matter the reason, care experienced children, like all other children, have the right to receive the support they need to be able to attend school. This can include practical support help them to get to school on time.
🔗 For more information about travel, check out our Enquire Transport to school resource
More on missing school
🔗 Check out our Navigate Talking about missing school page
🔗 Visit our Navigate Talking to children about missing school page
▶️ Watch our Navigate Care experience + missing school video
▶️ Watch our Navigate video on Supporting care experienced pupils missing school
