Children and young people are required to attend school if they have their place of residence, habitual abode or place of training or work in Baden-Württemberg.
In the case of children and young people who are not yet 18 years old, their legal guardians must ensure that they regularly attend lessons and other compulsory events.
The causes of truancy are often complex constellations of problems such as
- Fear of failure
- Bullying
- Separation from important caregivers
- lack of supervision
- lack of support
Forms and characteristics:
- Low school motivation
- arriving late for lessons
- low willingness to learn
- physical complaints in connection with school
- Conflicts at school
- School resistance
- repeated absences
- Resistance to teachers' expectations
- comprehensive performance problems
- Avoidance of performance situations
- School avoidance, which can range from irregular school attendance to missing individual lessons and days to prolonged absence and total disengagement.
A special form is passive truancy. Although children and young people are present in class from time to time, they do not follow the lessons or only follow them in a rudimentary way.
The aim of counselling is to find the causes and correctly assess the situation in order to be able to organise and provide help and support.