Truancy Troubles: Absences increasing in B.C.’s biggest school districts

Students in B.C.’s biggest districts are missing significantly more school in recent years, with absences having tripled in some places, an exclusive CBC News analysis has found.

Experts say the increases are significant because the more school students miss, the less likely they generally are to graduate.

In the Vancouver School Board, the number of excused absences — such as illness for which the reason was communicated to the school by a parent — doubled in elementary school and more than tripled in secondary school between October 2018 and October 2025.

This compares with a two per cent increase in the number of elementary school students and a four per cent increase in secondary school students.

The attendance data, which was collected as part of a national CBC investigation into school absences, was released by the board in a Freedom of Information request.

Unexcused absences, for which there is no communication from the parent or guardian, were down by a third in elementary, but increased 86 per cent in secondary school.

However, the data only tells one part of the story, according to Maureen McRae-Stanger, associate superintendent with the Vancouver School Board.

"Ninety-nine per cent of our students attend in the VSB every single day and I think the numbers that you see, the data that you've collected from us, doesn't tell that whole story," she said in an interview.

"It's less than one per cent of our students who actually have an attendance challenge."

There is no one single reason for the increases, according to Silvana Guglielmetti, manager of the Pathways to Education Program in B.C., which helps students in Grades 8 to 12 stay engaged with school. She works primarily in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Strathcona neighbourhoods and Whalley and Guildford in Surrey.

Increasing affordability struggles for many families have affected school attendance, she says.

“When you don't have food security … you don't have housing security, you struggle to pay for your internet and then all your assignments are online. That's how you need to submit things … but you don't have money. You need to work from your little phone to, you know, send your assignments to school. Those things continue to increase the barriers.”

Sometimes older students need to work to contribute to household income, or take care of younger siblings while their parents work, she adds.

Another factor is that students with learning differences “feel a bit like a square peg in a round hole.” If their condition is undiagnosed or the necessary supports are not in place, Guglielmetti says this can lead them to miss school.