27 Mar 2026
Our analysis of Department for Education data on school absences in 2024/25 reveals some concerning trends that stress the importance of our ongoing work focused on girls missing from school – including girls' unofficial exclusion from education through persistent absenteeism (missing 10% or more of school sessions in an academic year) and severe absenteeism (missing 50% or more of school sessions).
Despite the fact that girls have surpassed boys in rates of both persistent and severe absences since 2021/22, girls remain overlooked in policy and practice. We are particularly concerned that increases in the rates of severe absenteeism suggest that girls' absenteeism is becoming more chronic.
Whilst the national picture shows alarming levels of absenteeism amongst girls, breaking the data down regionally reveals a far more uneven and troubling reality – one in which where you live sharply shapes your likelihood of being in school. Scroll down to view our interactive regional maps, where you can see how girls’ absences in your area compare with the national picture.
Persistent absences
- In the academic year 2024/5, 661,542 girls were persistently absent from school – a rate of 18.33%. This means that almost 1 in 5 girls missed at least 10% of their education last year.
- Whilst this marks a decrease from 732,443 girls in the previous academic year, current numbers of persistently absent girls remain 77% higher than in 2017/18.
Severe absences
- In the academic year 2024/5, 87,695 girls were severely absent from school – a rate of 2.43%.
- This marks a 266% increase since 2017/18 in the number of girls registered as severely absent from school.
- 2,146 more girls were severely absent in 2024/25 than in the previous year.
This reflects an increasing trend of girls slipping into more chronic absenteeism. In 2017/18, only 6% of girls affected by absenteeism were severely absent. In 2024/25, that proportion has more than doubled to 13%. Despite this, as they represent a relatively small percentage of the school population, severely absent girls remain largely overlooked in policy and practice.
Regional disparities
The national focus on white working-class boys as the most vulnerable group risks masking the reality: girls at the sharpest end of absenteeism are being overlooked. Regional data shows that girls are just as likely - if not more likely - to be severely affected, shaped significantly by where they live. In two of the three regions most affected by absenteeism (the North East and the South West), girls experience higher rates of severe and persistent absences than boys.
Girls in the North East consistently experience the highest rates of persistent absence (19.77%). In 2024/25, the rate of girls’ persistent absence in the North East was 13% higher than in London (the region with the lowest rates).
Girls in the South West typically experience the highest rates of severe absence (2.96%). In 2024/25, the rate of girls’ persistent absence in the South West was 80% higher than in London.
At local authority level, Knowsley had the highest rate of persistent absences (24.26%), and York had the highest rate of severe absences (3.75%).
Ethnic disproportionalities
Our wider research into Black and minoritised girls’ experiences of school disengagement has also uncovered important ethnic disproportionalities, which show that Gypsy, Roma, Irish Traveller, and Mixed White and Black Caribbean girls are particularly vulnerable to high rates of persistent and severe absenteeism.
In 2023/24, data obtained from the Department for Education through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests revealed that:
- In every region, over 50% of girls of Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller heritage were persistently absent.
- Across the country, 13.28% of girls of Irish Traveller heritage and 8.45% of Gypsy/Roma* girls were severely absent – a significantly higher proportion of girls than the 2.35% average for girls that year.
- In the South West, which had the highest rates of severe absences, Mixed White and Black Caribbean girls were 57% more likely than White British girls to be severely absent.
- Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller girls in the South West were more than three times as likely than White British girls to be severely absent.
Conclusions
While policy has often focused on educational outcomes, the growing, but hidden problem of girls being absent from the classroom has been overlooked. Agenda Alliance’s engagement with girls and young women has identified gendered and intersectional drivers of disengagement from education, including racism, poverty, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), poor mental health, experience of care, and sexual harm and violence. These experiences can lead to girls self-excluding from school in the form of absenteeism. This is compounded by girls, particularly Black and minoritised girls, being met with inappropriate and insufficient responses from schools, including being punished for exhibiting behaviour stemming from the impact and experience of trauma.
Absenteeism has a significant and long-term impact on girls. Research shows that girls missing more than 20% of school are more than twice as likely to receive at least one criminal caution or conviction by early adulthood than girls missing 10% or less of school. However, despite the concerning trends in girls’ absenteeism and the regional disproportionalities outlined above, on a national and local level, we have found a lack of gender-specialist support being provided, with existing frameworks failing to address root causes and sometimes causing further harm (for example, through use of sanctions and the criminalisation of mothers whose children experience truancy).
Our findings stress the need to better understand drivers of girls’ absenteeism and the regional and ethnic disproportionalities within them in order for public bodies to urgently develop targeted solutions to support girls throughout their school journey.
Indy Cross, Chief Executive of Agenda Alliance, said:
Today’s release of statistics on school absences clearly demonstrates what we at Agenda Alliance already know – that the urgent needs of girls are continuing to be swept under the rug. The rate of girls severely absent from school has risen, and yet policy and practice responses are not keeping up with this.
The enduring repercussions of severe absenteeism are significant, and the drivers of it – mental ill health, domestic abuse, experiences of sexual harm and trauma – must be addressed to bring these unacceptable levels down. Yet specific support for girls in these areas remains patchy, and girls fall through gaps.
This issue is further compounded for racially minoritised girls, and girls from more socioeconomically deprived areas of the country, demonstrating that this issue cannot be tackled in a generic manner: gender, regionality, race and ethnicity must be central to efforts to reduce severe absenteeism.
To achieve this, the way forward is clear: the Government must work alongside specialist organisations who are embedded in their communities and have trust and rapport with girls, and support them to deliver gender-specialist and culturally-responsive support for girls at risk.
* ‘Gypsy/Roma’ and ‘Irish Traveller’ are the categories the Government has used within this data breakdown.