01/16/2026
Why haven’t we linked low attendance with the school environment?
We talk a lot about attendance.
We analyse it.
Track it.
Chase it.
Problem-solve it.
We talk about motivation.
Parental responsibility.
Resilience.
Anxiety.
Avoidance.
But we rarely talk about the environment children are expected to tolerate for six hours a day.
The noise.
The lighting.
The crowds.
The constant transitions.
The lack of quiet.
The lack of control.
The pressure to perform (socially and in tests)
For many neurodivergent children, school isn’t just demanding. It’s physically and sensory overwhelming.
If an adult felt headaches every day because the lights were too bright, we would adjust the lighting.
If an adult felt sick in a space because of noise and crowding, we would change the environment.
But when children feel those things, we often label the response instead.
School refusal.
Poor attendance.
Low resilience.
Attendance issues should be seen as an indicator, not a failure.
An indicator that something in the environment isn’t working.
An indicator that a child is coping the best they can.
An indicator that the demand is outweighing their capacity.
Instead, attendance is treated as a behaviour to fix rather than a response to something that doesn’t feel safe or manageable.
Not all absence is about attitude or parenting.
Sometimes it’s about a building, a timetable, a sensory load that never lets up.
If we want better attendance, we need to stop asking only why children aren’t coping and start asking whether school is actually tolerable for them.
Because many neurodivergent children are not avoiding learning.
They’re avoiding environments that overwhelm them.
Emma
The Autistic SENCo
♾️
Photo: Number 3 levitating
