The person and circumstances behind the student matter

The number of students who stay at home for more than three months and do not attend school—‘students absent from school’—is rising. The Kohnstamm Institute has observed this increase for years, and it is continuing despite the efforts arising from the Home-Sitters Pact (2016) and Appropriate Education (2014). In educational practice, dealing with students with behavioral problems is experienced as difficult and is associated with the number of students absent from school, which is not declining but is actually increasing.

In 2017, the Netherlands Organisation for Educational Research (NRO) therefore made funding available for practice-oriented research into behavior and (appropriate) education: ‘Teachers in primary and secondary education often experience appropriate education as a burden. They find dealing with and addressing students with problem behavior particularly difficult’ (NRO, 2017).

Assumptions from the literature

Based on the empirical scientific literature, the expectations beforehand were:

• that behavioral problems lie behind the issue of students being absent from school;
• that these problems are associated with behavior that is difficult to manage at school and in the classroom;
• that boys account for a larger share of this group than girls;
• that they are insufficiently motivated for school;
• that their cognitive abilities are inadequate;
• that more school changes occur as a result;
• that a negative school recommendation is more often given when transferring to secondary education.

It was also assumed:

• that their homes lack a sufficient degree of parental involvement and social capital;
• that they come from an economically deprived background (low SES);
• that social cohesion at school is insufficient for them or that they disrupt it;
• that they are more often subject to judicial measures than other students;
• that they more often come from urban areas; and that culture plays a role;
• that the last school is more often a focused school (exclusively VMBO rather than a diversity of types of education).

Report findings

A number of the assumptions mentioned above were not confirmed in the report ‘Not at Home; School Dropout from the Students’ Perspective’.

The Kohnstamm Institute found:

• no higher (but actually a lower) likelihood of being absent from school in cases of purely externalizing behavioral problems (oppositional and defiant behavior);
• a slightly higher likelihood of being absent from school among girls in particular;
• a higher likelihood of being absent from school in cases of internalizing behavioral problems;
• no indications that a lack of school motivation or cognitive problems are decisive factors in being absent from school.

The Kohnstamm Institute also found:

• that the terms parental involvement and social capital do not adequately reflect what is happening at home (our analysis identified ‘relationship problems between parents’, ‘separated parents’, ‘problems with the child’s loyalty toward a parent’ and ‘no contact with a parent’; interviews with students provided further detail, including parental overload, excessive stress or serious problems at home);
• that being more frequently burdened by judicial measures does emerge as a factor, but among students absent from school this mainly concerns civil-law matters, such as contact with the police as part of protective intervention (in connection with running away, being reported missing and searches) or placement in closed institutions and specialist assistance (such as youth care plus and mental health care).