This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

Attendance is about much more than being physically present in the classroom.

There will be students at schools around Scotland who are not receiving the educational experience that they need, despite being in class every day.

There will be other students who are habitually missing at roll call. It is all too easy to dismiss these as truants, but in reality, their attendance rates reflect deeper failings within the education system.

This week, Children in Scotland published a briefing on attendance rates for pupils with additional support needs (ASN). It looks to provide context for why pupils with ASN attend school less often than their peers (87.45% compared to 91.6%).

There are many ongoing efforts by the Scottish Government, local authorities and individual schools to better understand the factors behind low attendance rates. And yet, as the Children in Scotland briefing makes clear from the start, “the factors contributing to low attendance are not currently well understood”.

Although the report highlights the complexities of each young person's situation, a common thread runs through the briefing: children are speaking up but not being heard.

There is no need to take my word for it, though. Young people with ASN have made it clear that they often feel dismissed because well-intentioned adults prefer to keep their own counsel.

As one pupil told Children in........

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