Patterns of school non-attendance: An optimal matching analysis of school attendance data.

School absenteeism is known to hamper academic achievement, predict a range of school-related problems and cause early school leaving. The need for effective intervention for school absenteeism is evident. However, intervention of school absenteeism is hindered by the lack of reliable criteria to differentiate between problematic and non-problematic school absenteeism. In this project, we aim to fill that gap by applying the relative new method of optimal matching to search for patterns in the timing, duration and sequence of school non-attendance. In addition, we will relate these identified patterns in non-attendance to educational outcomes and validate these patterns through a cross-national comparison between Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) and Denmark.

To this end, we seek to answer three related research questions. (1) Can we identify typical patterns of non-attendance? (2) What are the consequences of such
patterns? (3) Vary such patterns cross-nationally? By answering
these questions, this project ultimately aims to propose uniform and
standardized criteria for differentiation between problematic and nonproblematic absenteeism to inform stakeholders on the timing of
intervention and to stimulate meaningful comparisons of school
absenteeism across studies and different countries