Helping Students Return From a Long Absence

A few years ago I had three students missing from my class for an extended period of time. One student was hospitalized, undergoing aggressive treatment for leukemia. Another was homebound after giving birth to her first child. Teachers were not told a reason for the third child’s absence, but we heard through her friends that she had attempted suicide and was undergoing treatment for mental health care.

Being away from school can be overwhelming for any student, no matter the cause. I was surprised to see how varied the responses to each of these students were among teachers. Some teachers made no changes and mandated all work complete, with students encouraged to find their own study resources or to “copy your friend’s notes.” On the other end of the spectrum, some teachers completely excused all assignments and lowered expectations for student performance.

All students facing physical or emotional challenges deserve our compassion, flexibility, and nonjudgmental support within the framework of upholding the purpose of school as a place for learning. Here are a few things I learned from that experience, and from coursework in the study of child life, that we can use to help absent students feel cared for, supported, and able to return to school with confidence.

Develop Tools for Organization

The pressure to catch up or stay on top of assignments while away can be overwhelming. Students need time to navigate the challenging circumstances that have necessitated their missing school to begin with. They also need to figure out what they need to do for school and how to do it! One simple, effective strategy I use is assigning a classroom attendance aide to compile missed work. This student completes a short “buddy memo” that lists the date, topic, and assignments, and a quick welcome-back note, thus reducing teacher workload while empowering students to support one another.

Digital resources can provide an invaluable tool to maintain academic engagement while away from class. Setting up an assignment calendar inside your learning management system makes it easy for students to access tasks from home and check in while they are out. Many online systems have the capacity to support caregiver integration, which allows an absent student’s support system to help manage the workload.

Set up a Team

Keeping in active communication with families can provide valuable insight into the student’s capacity, routines, and stress points. Regular communication ensures that the school stays aligned with caregivers’ expectations in a manner that is realistic and anchored in the student’s well-being.

Older students who have classes with multiple teachers have an additional challenge in needing to keep track of assignments for many different subjects, all of which might be taught with a different approach. In this case, meeting briefly as an academic team and designating one point of contact, such as the student’s homeroom or advisory teacher, can help streamline communication. Counselors can be another valuable resource for coordinating interactions between school and home, especially since counselors are specially trained to balance the emotional and academic needs of students.

For example, a parent of a student with chronic fatigue syndrome and migraines shared with us that their child was more focused and able to do work in the afternoons but did not feel well in the morning, and so they would stay home from school. Thanks to that communication, teachers were able to work with the administration and set up a schedule in which that student attended afternoon classes only and took time off in the mornings to rest. Without family input, we would not have been able to understand the challenge, and the student would have continued staying home all day.

For students who are not able to attend school at all for long periods of time, the team could include homebound education services. If a student is in the hospital, the student might be receiving services from a certified child life specialist or other school liaison that could help the student stay connected academically while away.

Think Humans First

Parents and teachers often don’t realize the amount of academic pressure many students feel on a day-to-day basis. Remember that students are humans first, and while Maxwell’s equations might be important in your curriculum, lacking that small piece of knowledge will not pose an irreparable gap in learning. You, as a teacher, have the power to reduce academic stress by proactively offering differentiated assignments and extended deadlines. Use asynchronous learning tools to give the student flexibility to work at their own pace.

A mastery-based approach to learning, where the student must demonstrate understanding before moving on, can also help the student feel a sense of control and empowerment rather than overwhelm. A student who was required to miss half days of school to participate in outpatient mental health treatment shared that one of the most helpful things that teachers did was to take time to break down assignments into manageable pieces. “That way I knew what to do each day and didn’t feel like I needed to do everything at once,” the student shared. Their parents also expressed appreciation for the clarity and structure that they could uphold at home.

Build a Safe Space

For students who experience an illness that causes a change in appearance, such as chemotherapy hair loss, or for students who feel social stigma about their need for medical care, anxiety about returning to school can be significant.

Integrating trauma-informed practices can help build a classroom space of nonjudgmental, compassionate interaction, so that students can know that they will be accepted unconditionally upon their return and that they do not need to be worried about social ostracism. My student with leukemia shared that she knew she was welcome, even with no hair, as staff and students donned bandanas to celebrate her return. In hindsight, I wish that we, as a school community, had made similar efforts to normalize depression and anxiety.

Check in regularly with the student on a social and emotional level as they are approaching a return to the classroom. Let the student take the lead in what they feel comfortable with. Some students might like a “welcome back” sign, while others might prefer to just slip back into their seat. A flexible, trauma-sensitive approach fosters a classroom environment where all students feel seen, heard, and supported without fear of judgment.

All three of my students did eventually return to school. They rejoined sports teams as they were able, caught up as they could, and were thriving again by the end of the year. Supporting students while they are away from school and as they return is not just about providing make-up work, it is about ensuring that the student feels safe, supported, and valued. By adopting a trauma-informed, flexible approach, teachers can help students maintain academic progress and rebuild social confidence.