For most young people school is a positive experience. There are the here-and-now benefits of spending time with friends, feeling cared for by teachers, and engaging with interesting curriculum; as well as long-term benefits, such as educational progression, career opportunities, and financial stability. When students experience the value of education, they attend and graduate, reaping the associated benefits. However, it is clear that school is not a positive experience for all children. Concern about school absenteeism is increasing across the globe.

Then adversities that precipitate attendance difficulties including those exacerbated by COVID are many. They experience absenteeism, suspensions, expulsions, change in schools, homelessness, food deprivation, incarceration of family members, adverse childhood experience (ACE) factors, death in the family, physical and mental health challenges, cultural backgrounds, poverty, zip code they live in, language, disability, academic failure, juvenile arrest, criminal backgrounds, and more.

K–16 is a movement in the United States to bring together various levels of education for younger students, namely between the K–12 and the post-secondary education systems, and create aligned policy and practice in examination practices, graduation requirements, admissions policies, and other areas. The movement is so-named because of an implied continuum between the traditionally-distinct K–12 system and the two-to-four-year basic post-secondary education system that is in place in most colleges and universities. However, sluggish growth has occurred in educational attainment due to climbing college tuitions and weak academic preparation in K-12, both of which have disproportionately hindered the educational progression of low-income children. Trends in K-12 education have important ramifications for college education and vice versa, including attendance, educational policy, remediation of basic academic skills, gender differences in enrollment, and diversity, among other issues.

This special issue presents and examines K-16 college pathways for students who experienced school attendance challenges—such as refusal, withdrawal, avoidance, truancy, exclusion, or other—when they were in primary or secondary school. In the issue, we want to identify and share interventions that have worked. To contrast with the negative outcomes for those who have failed to graduate or get on a K-16 pathway or career success. We want to present positive outcomes, when the absent students successfully defied the odds, benefit from intervention, graduated, and succeeded on a post-secondary pathway.

Manuscripts should demonstrate what worked for students and assure absent students’ education was ‘not canceled.’

The main question addressed in this Research Topic is “What school attendance interventions support successful K-16 pathways for students with school attendance challenges in primary and secondary school?”

Types of articles we anticipate may include:
- Systematic & scoping reviews.
- Empirical studies exploring the effectiveness of various interventions.
- Qualitative studies, narrative/arts-based research, exploring lived experience of school attendance difficulties/interventions.
- Case studies of interventions in particular schools.
- Conceptual analyses of the principles or underpinning of intervention programs.

This Research Topic is open to contributions internationally.

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Frontiers in Psychology

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