A high level of school absence has persisted across many countries since the Covid-19 pandemic. We use English data to investigate how local health and social regulations affected pupil absence rates during the pandemic and whether this pupil absence had a causal impact on school attendance and academic progress in future years. We find that more stringent regulations caused higher rates of school absence at that time, with bigger impacts in more disadvantaged areas and for lower socio-economic groups. Absenteeism during the pandemic caused lower attendance and rates of achievement in subsequent years. Our evidence suggests that the persistent effect is caused by changes in parents' and pupils' attitudes to attendance and not because of rules forcing students to stay at home when they had been in contact with others who had Covid-19.

---

22 July 2025     Paper Number CEPSP52

Download PDF - Pupil absence and the Covid-19 pandemic

This CEP report is published under the centre's Education programme.