Hvornår er skolefravær etsocialt problem?

Unfortunately, an increasing number of children and young people in the Nordic countries are absent from school without permission. This draws attention to the State’s duty to limit drop-out rates, according to the CRC. In this article, the legal basis for the social services department´s handling of school absence, including the cooperation between school social workers and the schools, is analysed with Denmark as a case study. Traditionally, it has been the school’s task to get rid of truancy. Today, school absence is often seen as a social problem for the child, or as a sign that there may be other social problems in the family. The focus is therefore on whether the schools and the local municipalities are responding appropriately to school absence. Many Danish municipalities have established school social workers as part of the preventive work. It is emphasised that the new approach to school absence and interdisciplinary cooperation means that it becomes increasingly difficult to navigate between the view of the child’s best interests and the requirements of confidentiality and data minimisation.