Absenteeism, AcademicSocioemotional Difficulties, and Disability

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Absenteeism, Academic/Socioemotional
Difficulties, and Disability

• School attendance problems are widely recognized
  as symptomatic of underlying academic and
  socioemotional difficulties (Berg, 1992 Berg
  Nurnstein, 1996 Blagg, 1987 Chialand Young,
  1990 Hansen et al. 1998 Hicks, 2002 Kearney,
  1995 Kearney Albano, 2000 Kearney Tilotson,
  1998 King, Ollendick Tonge, 1995 King et al
  199 Wietzman, 1985)
• Children receiving special education services
  have higher rates of absenteeism and are at
  greater risk for truancy and school dropout than
  their regular education counterparts (Hansen et
  al. 1998 Hicks, 2002 Koetering Braziel, 1999
  Naylor et al. 1994 Zigmond Thornton, 1985).
• Most investigations have focused on chronic
  truancy in secondary students and on the
  emotional/behavioral disordered classification
  (cf. Berg Nurnstein, 1996).
• But Absenteeism has also been linked to
  socioemotional problems in younger children
  (Chapar, Firedman, Horowitz, 1988 Pennebaker
  et al. 1981), children with anxiety disorders
  (Hansen et al. 1998 King et al. 1999), and in
  children with language and learning disorders
  (Kotering Braziel, 1999 Naylor, 1994). Other
  categories of disability, such as autism,
  developmental delay, and intellectual disability
  have received less attention.

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Questions Directing Current Study

• The effects of disability category on
  childrens school attendance relative to the
  influences of other predictors of absenteeism
  warrants further investigation
• 1. Which set of demographic/educational
  variables represent the best predictors of
  student absenteeism?
• 2. Are there differences between students in
  regular education and students in special
  education in their rates of absenteeism?
• 3. Are there differences in absenteeism across
  children placed into different disability
  classifications?

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Participants/Data Source

• Archival records of student attendance for the
  2001/2002 school year were collected from all
  students in enrolled in a mid-sized urban school
  district in the Intermountain West. District
  records combined both parent sanctioned absences
  as well as truancy.
• Sample Characteristics
• 28,745 student records
• 48.4 female, 51.8 male, 31.8
• Free/Reduced lunch was received by 58.67 of
  sample
• 37.1 of the sample were identified as English
  Language Learners
• 29.1 of the students moved during the course of
  the school year
• 61.9 of students lived with both parents

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Data Analyses

• Regression Model
• Ordinary least squares regression with percent
  absent ( of days absent/ days enrolled) as the
  response variable
• 15 predictor variables used in model building
• Guardian, gender, race/ethnicity (each of 6
  groups as a separate variable), grade level,
  disability, days membership, English proficiency,
  lunch status, mobility, and school
• Backward elimination was used to account for
  interaction effects among variables
• Residuals were homeoscedastic and normally
  distributed
• ANOVAs
• Used to compare group differences in percent
  absent and interactions between percent absent
  and predictor variables between children enrolled
  in regular education and special education
  services

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Results

• Demographic Predictors of Students Absences
• 12 predictor variables accounted for 11.10 of
  the variance F (12, 28732) 300.7540 p lt .001
• Receipt of special education services accounted
  for 0.10 unique variance
• These results suggest that a coalition of
  additive factors rather than the presence/absence
  of any one factor placed children at risk for
  school attendance difficulties.
• These results also suggest that unidentified
  individual factors, within both the regular and
  special education groups, accounted for the
  majority of variation observed across student
  attendance rates

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Results, contd

• Student Absenteeism Rates Across Grades
• Grade Effects F (12, 28744) 32.965, p lt .001
• K-6 Starts high and then generally declines
  elementary grades
• Middle School Drops significantly
• High School Jumps in grade 9 and then rises
  steadily to grade 12
• General/Special Education Differences
• Group Effects F (1, 28745) 138.298, p lt .001
• Group X Grade Effects F (12, 28744) 10.425, p
  lt .001
• Absenteeism rates higher for special education
  group for grades 3-11
• Special education groups absenteeism rates
  considerably higher through grades 9-11
• Differences Across Disability Categories
• Within special education group, rates of
  absenteeism were highest for the multiple
  disabilities, TBI, sensory impaired,
  developmentally delayed, learning disabled and
  emotional disturbance categories F (10,
  4122)14.736, p lt .0001

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Clinical Implications

• 1. Elevated rates of absenteeism were associated
  with many disability categories which receive
  services from SLPs.
• 2. However, this generalization did not apply to
  children within the communication disorders
  category the second largest category of special
  education services. This outcome was consistent
  with an earlier report based on a Midwest sample
  (Hicks, 2002).
• 3. The amount of instructional time indicated in
  education plans should take into account
  students projected patterns of attendance by
  considering their grade, disability category and
  other risk factors
• 4. Absentee prevention programs should take into
  account the cumulative impact of risk factors
• 5. The risk factors identified in this study
  collectively accounted for 11 of the variability
  indicating that there are many unknown factors
  that contribute to student absenteeism