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School attendance in England has begun to recover from the disruption of the pandemic, but new research suggests the headline figures only tell part of the story.

A September 2026 report from Impetus, A crisis of disengagement: listening to, and learning from, teachers on school attendance, argues that the most concerning forms of absence are often rooted not simply in behaviour or compliance, but in a much deeper loss of connection with school.

The report is the final part of a three-year research programme looking at attendance through the experiences of parents, pupils and school staff. For this latest study, Impetus spoke to 62 secondary school staff across England through nine focus groups, including classroom teachers, attendance leads and senior leaders working in schools serving disadvantaged communities.

Attendance remains well above pre-pandemic levels

There has been progress. Overall absence fell from 7.15% in 2023/24 to 6.78% in 2024/25, while persistent absence fell from 19.95% to 18.14%.

Yet the longer-term picture remains worrying. Impetus reports that overall absence stood at 4.73% before the pandemic in 2018/19, while persistent absence was 10.86%. Severe absence, where pupils miss half or more of their school sessions, has continued to rise, reaching 2.39% in 2024/25 compared with just 0.85% in 2018/19.

The divide is particularly stark for disadvantaged pupils. In 2024/25, pupils eligible for free school meals were more than two and a half times as likely to be persistently absent as their peers, and more than three and a half times as likely to be severely absent.

That means the challenge is not simply getting national attendance figures moving in the right direction. It is understanding which children are returning to regular attendance and which are becoming progressively more disconnected from education.

Staff see disengagement as the bigger problem

One of the strongest findings from the Impetus research is the distinction school staff make between occasional absence and a pattern of absence that becomes habitual.

Teachers were generally less concerned about a pupil missing an isolated day than about young people gradually losing their routines, falling behind academically, becoming disconnected from friendships and losing relationships with trusted adults in school. Once that process begins, returning to regular attendance becomes much harder.

The reasons are rarely simple. Staff pointed to poverty, unmet SEND needs, mental health difficulties, family circumstances, previous negative experiences of education and reduced access to wider support services.

Absence can therefore become both a consequence of disadvantage and something that makes disadvantage worse. Missing school can make it harder to keep up with lessons, maintain friendships and feel part of the school community, which in turn can make attending feel even more difficult.

Relationships matter, but they take time

The approaches staff felt most confident in were often relational rather than punitive.

Across Impetus’s research with parents, pupils and school staff, trusted adults, mentoring, enrichment opportunities and a stronger sense of belonging repeatedly emerged as important factors in improving engagement.

The problem is that this work is demanding. Staff described attendance work as relentless, involving phone calls, meetings, home visits, pastoral support and repeated attempts to rebuild trust with families.

This also creates tension around fines and sanctions. While some staff viewed enforcement as a necessary option, many worried that it could damage relationships with precisely the families schools were trying hardest to re-engage.

The report does not argue that expectations around attendance should disappear. Instead, it suggests that attendance policies will struggle to deliver lasting change if pupils are brought through the school gates without addressing why they do not want to be there in the first place.

From attendance management to belonging

Impetus makes three main recommendations.

First, the government should make better use of attendance data, tracking how pupils move between different levels of attendance so that deterioration can be spotted before a pupil reaches the persistent-absence threshold. The report also recommends looking separately at disadvantaged pupils and learning from schools that achieve unusually strong results in comparable circumstances.

Second, schools and the wider education system should put belonging and engagement at the centre of attendance strategy. Impetus points to greater investment in enrichment, mentoring and trusted-adult programmes, support during transitions between schools and opportunities for pupils to build friendships and social connections.

Third, the report calls for stronger links between education and young people’s future opportunities. Schools, employers, colleges, universities, local authorities and communities should work together earlier to help disadvantaged pupils understand how attending school connects to employment, independence and the futures they want to build.

A different way of thinking about absence

Perhaps the most useful message from the Impetus report is that attendance cannot be treated as a single problem with a single solution.

For some pupils, absence may be occasional and temporary. For others, it is part of a gradual process of disengagement. Those different circumstances require different responses.

That shifts the conversation away from attendance as a simple question of whether a pupil is physically present and towards a more important one: does that pupil feel that school is a place where they belong, can succeed and can see a future for themselves?

Improving attendance still requires clear expectations and effective systems. But the Impetus research makes a persuasive case that sustained improvement will also depend on giving young people positive reasons to return tomorrow.

Source: Impetus, A crisis of disengagement: listening to, and learning from, teachers on school attendance, Katie Carr, Ed Dorrell and Ben Carr, September 2026.

Read the full Impetus attendance report