School attendance and its problems (absenteeism) are critical benchmarks of functioning in children and adolescents but also represent highly vexing case presentations for practicing psychologists and other health and school-based professionals. This is especially the case in the modern era marked by multiple teaching and learning platforms. A key challenge in this regard has been determining the point at which a specific case of absenteeism may be considered problematic (i.e., caseness). This article outlines proposed functional impairment guidelines for this population as a common language to define caseness that can apply to various types of school absenteeism, educational formats, jurisdictions and geographical areas, and developmental levels and grades. The guidelines focus on three primary domains: school (timing of school absences; interference with academic competence; administrative/legal action that impedes future school attendance), social (interference with social competence; interference in interpersonal relationships; enhanced risk of harm to others), and family (interference with daily family functioning; significant, maladaptive changes in family dynamics; substantial cost to family members). Recommendations are provided with respect to defining caseness and developing functional impairment assessments for this population.
Public Significance StatementThe present article summarizes proposed guidelines for determining whether school attendance problems rise to the level of need for intervention by psychologists, other health care practitioners, and school-based professionals. The guidelines focus on potential problems with respect to school, social, and family functioning that may also help guide solutions for individual cases of school absenteeism.