Emotionally Based School Avoidance

Persistent absence, a term used by the Department for Education (DfE) to describe children and young people who miss 10% or more of school, is of national and international concern. 

Children and young people miss school for a variety of reasons that are often complicated and inter-related.  Some children and young people want to go to school but struggle to do so because of emotional distress. The term, emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), is used to describe the emotional difficulties involved with non-attendance.

Listening to each other, monitoring attendance data and identifying children and young people early who are starting to show signs of EBSA, gives schools and professionals the best chance to prevent entrenched EBSA and to provide timely support.

Resources on this page can be used to help and support early intervention, as much as possible, for those children and young people who are 'at risk' of EBSA.