Inequalities in persistent school absences
About 2 mins
Key points
- The rate of persistent absences is higher now compared with before the pandemic.
- Pupils with a Gypsy, Roma or Irish traveller background, children eligible for free school meals and children with special educational needs are the most likely to be persistently absent from school.
Education plays an important role in shaping people’s health by influencing factors such as income and employment. In turn, these provide the resources people need to maintain good health, such as access to nutritious food and safe housing. It can also support better health literacy, making it easier for people to understand health information and allow more informed health choices as a result.
Schools can also support health more directly through provision of physical activities, breakfast clubs and school meals, social opportunities and health interventions such as vaccination programmes. Absences from school can reduce academic performance and reduce opportunities to take part in health-promoting activities. The reasons for children’s absence, such as long-term illness or stressful home environments, can also affect their ability to perform well in school. This is particularly important for children with special educational needs, who may be getting a number of necessary health interventions through their school.
This chart shows the percentage of pupils who missed 10% or more of their classes in 2018/19 and 2023/24. Pupils are grouped by ethnicity, sex, eligibility for free school meals, and level of special educational needs.
- Pupils of Irish traveller background had the highest level of persistent absence, with 70.2% of pupils missing 10% or more of their classes in 2023/24. This compares with 5.5% of Chinese pupils missing 10% or more of their classes, the ethnic group with the lowest level of persistent absence.
- Boys and girls show similar levels of persistent absenteeism, with rates nearly doubling over the observed time period. In 2018/19, 10.6% of girls and 11.1% of boys missed at least 10% of their classes. By 2023/24, these figures had risen to 20.1% for girls and 19.8% for boys.
- Pupils eligible for free school meals were more than twice as likely to miss at least 10% of classes in 2023/24 compared with pupils not eligible for free school meals – 34.8% compared with 14.1%.
- Pupils on education, health and care plans were twice as likely to be persistently absent than pupils with no identified special educational needs (SEN), with 35.5% missing at least 10% of classes in 2023/24 compared with 16.8% of pupils with no SEN.
- Across all ethnicities, genders, economic backgrounds and physical abilities, the levels of persistent school absences were significantly higher in 2023/24 than they were in 2018/19.
- Persistent absence rate is the percentage of pupils who miss 10% or more of their classes.
- Absence rates are calculated for compulsory school-age pupils (5 to 15-year-olds).
- A child is defined as having special educational needs (SEN) if he or she ‘has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special education provision to be made for him or her’ (Section 20 Children and Families Act 2014).
- SEN support is the first level of support provided to children with special educational needs and is funded by school budgets.
- Children and young people aged up to 25 may have an education, health and care (EHC) plan if they need more support than is available through SEN support. EHC plans are funded by school budgets, as well as local authorities and parents.
- Pupils are eligible for free school meals if they are from families that receive other qualifying benefits such as Income Support or Universal Credit.
Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England, 2025
