Reported illnesses have tripled in some school districts. Experts say mental health is a factor

A child is being brutally harassed in the school premises. A student with anxiety and ADHD who struggles to navigate a crowded, noisy classroom. A humiliated teen whose embarrassing photo was shared with his entire grade.

Such experiences are common. For some children, they make going to school feel impossible.

This is called school avoidance, sometimes also called school phobia. This happens when school doesn’t feel safe and staying home becomes a form of self-protection.

Experts say it’s a factor leading to a rise in absenteeism, a CBC investigation found that is happening across the country.

The type of absenteeism that increased the most was reported illnesses, which increased compared to five years ago in every district that tracked them. In some places, even after taking into account the increase in the number of students, they more than tripled.

It’s something Toronto father and former school board trustee Norm Di Pasquale is all too familiar with.

By the end of October, his 12-year-old son William was unable to attend school for nearly 10 days. The reason?

“There are scoundrels out there,” William said, sitting on his bed, which is covered in Squishmallows. Certificates of achievement are posted on their walls: Virtue of the Month awards for mathematics, piano, and for compassion.

“They’ll say mean things,” William said quietly.

“Sometimes I feel like, ‘I don’t care, OK, yes, you said it.’ But sometimes it feels like it hurts,,

William says that he is four feet six inches short for his age. This, as well as facial flushing, are two reasons William says he is bullied in the schoolyard.

“It’s hard not to pinch. I don’t know how.”

His father, Norm, says the bullying is both verbal and physical.

“When these types of incidents happen, I can absolutely guarantee there will be an absence the next day.”

Norm explains, William will be resistant the next morning. He may delay getting out of bed and getting dressed or complain that he is feeling sick.

“You don’t always get the obvious reasonson…aSa parents who have to start work, you know, at 9 in the morning, you have a limited amount of Runway to convince your child to go to school in the morning.”

Absence as a ‘symptom’

Williams is very lonely, according to David Smith, a psychologist and education professor at the University of Ottawa who studies school attendance and whose previous work has focused on bullying.

“There are hundreds or thousands of students every day who drop out of school because of bullying,” he said.

Bullying, which can now reach the children’s home Social media and group chatIt’s hard to quantify, and nothing is tracked in the data obtained by CBC.

Because data on absenteeism is also collected inconsistently across different jurisdictions, using descriptors that are often vague and subjective, it is difficult to get a clear picture of what is happening, said Natasha McBrearty, who also researches school attendance at the University of Ottawa and is a registered psychotherapist.

“When we think about school attendance, we think of it as a symptom of underlying issues going on,” she explained.

These could include physical or mental health concerns, lack of transportation, changing technology that makes learning from home easier, housing instability or even children having to work to support their families, she says.

what the data shows

CBC News reached out to 46 school districts with student populations of more than 25,000 to request data on the reasons for absenteeism at different ages. We received at least some data from 26 districts across Canada.

CBC News requested the following data for 2018–19 to 2024–25, but the starting years for many districts varied:

• excused absenceThat includes religious holidays, professional appointments, school trips, snow days, family events like funerals, and often illnesses. These increased in five years in 11 out of 15 districts tracked. The two districts saw an increase for one age group and a decrease for the other. One showed an overall decrease, and one had only one year of data.
• unexcused absenceWhich occurs for reasons not approved by the province or school district, or absence for which there is no explanation. These increased over five years in 10 of the 15 districts, while four showed mixed results at different age levels. One had only one year’s data.
• diseases It increased over five years at all ages in 11 of the 12 districts that measured it independently. One district had data for only one year.
• chronic absenceWhich typically means the proportion of students who miss more than 10 percent of the school year, or about two days a month. Research has found it to be predictive negative consequences later in life. Of earlier cbc reporting, which included fewer districts, found that long-term absenteeism had increased in most places As of the 2022-23 school year. The analysis shows growth over five years in eight of the 19 districts and mixed results among different age groups in six others. Overall improvement was seen in four districts.

Absenteeism due to mental health or anxiety may appear in any category. If a child is stressed due to bullying and complains of stomach ache, it may be reported as an illness. If someone does not report absence, it will be considered inexcusable.

“There is no button for bullying in the SchoolMessenger application,” Norm explained, referring to the app used to report William’s absences.

‘You can’t pretend like nothing is happening’

When Courtney McLean, a mother of three in Bassano, Alta., calls to report an absence, the reason is clear to her.

“When I call and leave that message and I say my daughter is getting mental health treatment or my daughter is struggling… it’s because if they don’t know, they’re going to treat her the same way when she comes back,” she explained.

“You can’t pretend like nothing’s happening.”

All three of McLean’s children suffer from ADHD. Her eldest, 12-year-old Evelyn, is also worried.

Until last summer, the family lived in Airdrie, where Maclean says There were 52 students and two teachers in his daughter’s class.,

“She was constantly nervous to go to school. She wouldn’t raise her hand and if she needed help with something she would refuse to ask because it would draw attention to herself,” he said.

McLean knows firsthand how difficult it can be for neurodivergent children to attend school, and says her children came home tired.

“There’s so much going on, so many people, so much noise, so much excitement.”

“My Gavin especially, you know, he has to work really hard with his neurodivergence to curb his enthusiasm and sit quietly and do all his work, and remember all the little things. And he sometimes comes home at the end of the day and throws himself on the floor, not angry or anything, but completely devastated.”

Things have improved for her children since moving to a smaller town with smaller classes, but McLean says Evelyn is still struggling.

Returning to school following the teachers’ strike in Alberta created a mental health crisis for her daughter, which McLean says was partly caused by the anticipation of upcoming exams.

“Taking tests is a huge cause of anxiety for a lot of kids. And a lot of kids don’t have (individualized learning plans) to say, oh, you’re allowed to have more time or you’re allowed to have a quiet space, or you can have noise-canceling headphones.”

And while some parents can’t happen Consider mental health challenges One reason to stay home from school, neither McLean nor Di Pasquale is taking that approach.

,“He seems to have to endure so much while he’s in school that I don’t want him to have to endure any more hardships on my behalf before school starts,” Di Pasquale said, referring to William.

“InFocus on keeping that line of communication open. He has to trust me.”

helping children feel safe

Some parents who can’t work from home may have no choice but to send them.

McLean says teachers are generally doing their best under challenging circumstances.

Training more staff in schools to recognize the signs of a mental health crisis would help their children. She would also like the school to check with all families about what things are difficult or easy for their child.

“I think you’ll have a lot of kids who wanted it a little quieter, or who wanted a little more space and a little less eyes on them or, you know, a little more time.”

William is clear about what would make school easier for him: more staff outside at recess and lunch times to keep an eye on what’s happening in the schoolyard.

“We’re a little short on staff this year and … usually there’s just one person on the field overseeing everything.”

study showsAccording to David Smith of the University of Ottawa, Williams is right about this.

,There is good research, and it has been going on for some time, that has shown that when you increase surveillance of adults in low-surveillance spaces in schools and school campuses, you have a meaningful impact on bullying rates,” he said.

“It doesn’t get rid of all of this, that’s for sure, but it can have a substantial impact.”

Another point examined in Smith’s research is the importance of strong relationships with teachers in increasing a child’s sense of safety at school.

“You know, they’re less likely to need to stay home and avoid going to school because…there’s someone I can count on. There’s someone I can go to if I’m having a bad day.”