Does the reason make a difference? Assessing school absence codes and their associations with student achievement outcomes

Understanding different reasons for student absences, how these reasons vary across students, and how the absence-­achievement relationship varies by reason for absence represents a significant gap in attendance research and policy. This thesis addressed these gaps using administrative data for students attending government schools in Western Australia from 2013 to 2016. Results showed that (1) understanding variation in absence types is essential when assessing student outcomes, (2) unexplained absences require more policy attention, and (3) the negative absence-achievement association is larger for high-achieving than low-achieving students. These findings provide important insights for policy-makers, schools, students and families concerning student absences.