Trajectories of school absence from 9 to 13 years of age and over time

Ireland, like many other countries, has seen a significant increase in school absence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over a fifth of primary and post-primary students missing 20 or more days per school year (in 2023/24) (TESS, 2025). Existing international and Irish research has pointed to the multiplicity of factors at individual, family, community and school levels that shape school absence (see, for example, Gubbels et al., 2019; Sosu et al., 2021). However, few studies have sought to examine the reasons underlying post-pandemic growth in non-attendance or whether particular groups of young people are disproportionately affected. This report draws on Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data to contribute to the evidence base on school absence in two ways: first, data from Cohort ’08, who made the transition to post-primary education during the period of school closures, are used to look at changes between 9 and 13 years in patterns of absence; second, data from Cohorts ’98 and ’08 are used to compare 13-year-olds a decade apart in their levels and patterns of non-attendance.