School Absenteeism Screening in the Healthcare Setting: Linking Education and Medicine

School absenteeism and health have a close bidirectional link: children with medical conditions miss more school, and chronic absenteeism is tied to poor health outcomes. Despite rising absenteeism, tools to assess school attendance in healthcare settings remain underexplored. Brief, standardized attendance screening may help address this gap.

A school attendance screening tool was integrated into the electronic medical records at two clinics. Charts of 699 patients (ages 5-17) from October 2022 were analyzed for screening completion, attendance patterns, and absence reasons. Two or more absences per month were considered a positive screen for chronic absenteeism risk.

Attendance screening was completed in 70% (n = 489), with no significant demographic differences between screened and unscreened. Approximately 15% (n = 72) screened positive for chronic absenteeism risk. The most common reasons were acute (62.5%) or chronic (11.1%) medical issues. Asthma was more prevalent among those who screened positive (p = 0.023).

Healthcare-based attendance screening is feasible, although opportunities remain to increase provider screening. Given high rates of medically related absences, healthcare providers are uniquely positioned to identify and support youth at risk.

Integrating screening into routine medical care can enable early interventions for absenteeism, improving health and educational outcomes.