School Attendance Decision Guide
Map the barrier before choosing the attendance intervention.
An attendance percentage tells the team that school access has become a concern. It does not identify why attendance breaks down or select the intervention. Use this four-part map before recommending a goal, contingency, FBA, or BIP.
1. Locate the attendance breakdown
Describe what happens without turning the attendance percentage into an explanation. Does the difficulty occur before leaving home, at arrival, during a particular class or transition, after an interaction, or when the student is expected to remain for the full day? Review the pattern across days, settings, people, and demands.
2. Investigate plausible barriers
List the barriers the available evidence supports and the questions that remain unanswered. Health, transportation, housing, family circumstances, safety, instruction, mental health, and environmental contingencies can produce similar attendance records. Do not assume every absence has the same cause.
3. Include safety, student voice, and family input
Ask what the student and family report, what parts of school feel difficult or unpredictable, and what would make participation more tolerable. Their reports do not determine function by themselves, but they can identify conditions the team needs to investigate.
4. Assign team ownership and the next evidence
Decide which unanswered questions belong to behavior analysis, mental health, health, instruction, transportation, family support, safety, or administration. Name who will gather each piece of information and set a date for the team to review what it learns before selecting the next procedure.
Use the guide as an organizing tool
This guide does not diagnose school refusal, establish behavioral function, or prescribe an intervention. The studies discussed in the related research brief do not establish what caused an individual student's attendance difficulty or test a school-BCBA-delivered attendance intervention.
School Attendance Behavior Concern Decision Guide checklist
- Pattern: When and where does attendance break down?
- Barrier: What condition, demand, interaction, or transition still needs investigation?
- Safety and voice: What do the student and family report would make participation more predictable and tolerable?
- Team ownership: Which professional owns each unanswered question?
- Review date: When will the team use the new information to choose the next step?
Questions this page answers
Does an attendance percentage identify the function of school avoidance?
No. It measures the extent of the attendance concern, but it does not explain why attendance breaks down or identify which intervention would fit the student and setting.
Does every attendance concern require an FBA?
No. The team should first clarify the pattern, plausible barriers, student and family input, and professional responsibilities. That information helps determine whether behavior-analytic assessment, another discipline's assessment, or a coordinated team response is the appropriate next step.
What should a school team do before writing an attendance goal?
Map when attendance breaks down, identify the questions that remain unanswered, assign the right professionals to investigate those questions, and set a date to review the evidence before selecting a target or procedure.
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