Fostering school attendance for students in care: The role of policy

Students who live in out-of-home care are likely to be absent from school far more often than their more privileged peers, yet they rely more on schooling to improve their lives. Therefore, enabling them to attend school is a social justice concern. In this presentation, we focus on the role of policy in promoting school attendance. We conducted a policy analysis of out-of-home care and education policies in two Australian states and found specific policy examples in relation to three ways of reimagining school attendance. First, making school systems more inclusive to reduce system-generated absences. Second, ensuring schools are places where students want to be, to reduce unauthorised absences. Finally, strengthening links between social services and schools to enable students to be at school and reduce authorised absences. We discuss the contradictory possibilities of policies across the fields of education and out-of-home care for fostering school attendance for students in care.