Types and correlates of school absenteeism among students with intellectual disability.
Kids with ID miss school most when illness, poor sleep, or hard classes stack up—fix the health and skill gaps and attendance rises.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked parents why their kids with intellectual disability missed school.
They counted the days absent and sorted the reasons into four buckets: illness, appointments, parent withdrawal, and child refusal.
The sample came from both mainstream and special-education classrooms.
What they found
Students with ID missed about 8 % of the school year.
Illness and medical appointments topped the list, but parents also kept kids home on purpose and some children refused to go.
Absences were higher in regular public schools than in special-only schools.
How this fits with other research
Takahashi et al. (2023) show kids with ID lag far behind in motor skills. Poor coordination can make PE painful and recess hard—one more reason a child may say “I won’t go.”
Kennedy (2025) finds that lost sleep spikes challenging behavior. Tired kids feel sick more often and parents may keep them home, matching the illness category in A et al.
King et al. (2013) found these same students already skip after-school sports. Missing class extends the pattern of exclusion from play to academics.
Why it matters
You can cut absenteeism by treating the real triggers. Check sleep first, then watch for motor-skill struggles that make school aversive. Schedule doctor visits outside class hours and teach parents how to shape attendance instead of giving in to refusal. Small fixes can give a child eight extra days of learning each year.
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Add a 30-second sleep check to morning greeting and swap one difficult PE task for a mastered movement to start the day with success.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: It appears that students with intellectual disability (ID) are more frequently absent from school compared with students without ID. The objective of the current study was to estimate the frequency of absence among students with ID and the reasons for absence. Potential reasons included the attendance problems referred to as school refusal, where absence is related to emotional distress; truancy, where absence is concealed from parents; school exclusion, where absence is instigated by the school; and school withdrawal, where absence is initiated by parents. METHODS: Study participants were 629 parents (84.6% mothers) of Australian school students (Mage = 11.18 years; 1.8% Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander) with an ID. Participants completed a questionnaire battery that included the School Non-Attendance ChecKlist via which parents indicated the reason their child was absent for each day or half-day absence their child had over the past 20 school days. The absence data presented to parents had been retrieved from school records. RESULTS: Across all students, absence occurred on 7.9% of the past 20 school days. In terms of school attendance problems as defined in existing literature, school withdrawal accounted for 11.1% of absences and school refusal for 5.3% of absences. Students were also absent for other reasons, most commonly illness (32.0%) and appointments (24.2%). Of students with more than one absence (n = 217; 34.5%), about half were absent for more than one reason. Students attending mainstream schools had lower attendance than those attending special schools. CONCLUSIONS: Students with ID were absent for a range of reasons and often for multiple reasons. There were elevated rates of school withdrawal and school refusal. Understanding the reasons for absenteeism can inform targeted prevention and intervention supports.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2023 · doi:10.1111/jir.13011