Neurodivergent children have a disproportionately high rate of involuntary school absenteeism (ISA), understood not as truancy but as the inability to attend.
This study explored how child-related, family-related, and school-related factors were associated with ISA in 274 adolescents diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and Tourette syndrome. Research on ISA rarely consults children, contributing to epistemic/testimonial injustice. We complement children’s perspectives with parents’ reports.
In addition to ISA experiences, reported outcomes include dropout, current full-time school attendance, and school-related fear.
ISA rates were similar across diagnoses. We therefore relate observed outcomes to shared divergence from an increasingly narrower child norm, and that this supports treating the group collectively for the analysis.
Parents’ socioeconomic characteristics were not associated with ISA, but school-related factors generally were. Friends at school, caring teachers, and academic mastery were associated with positive outcomes.
Standard advice and interventions provided for ISA may be inadequate for neurodivergent children.
