When progress doesn’t look like attendance in SEND education

Attendance matters.

Schools are under pressure to improve it. Families feel judged by it. Local authorities monitor it closely. It has become one of the most visible indicators of whether education is working.

But in SEND education, attendance and progress are not always the same thing.

For some learners, being physically present in a classroom does not mean they feel safe, regulated or ready to learn. A child can be counted as attending and still be overwhelmed. They can be in the room and yet be emotionally absent.

At the same time, a learner who is not yet able to return to school may be making meaningful progress in ways that are harder to measure.

They may be sleeping more consistently.

They may be tolerating short periods of structured activity.

They may be engaging in conversation again.

They may be beginning to trust an adult enough to try.

These shifts often happen quietly. They rarely show up in attendance data. But they matter.

When learning has become associated with anxiety or distress, forcing attendance without rebuilding safety can deepen avoidance rather than reduce it. Pressure can increase shame. Shame can increase withdrawal.

This does not mean attendance is unimportant. It means that attendance is often an outcome of progress, not the starting point.

In practice, we often see learners begin to re-engage only after trust has been rebuilt in smaller, more flexible contexts. A short session. A predictable routine. A relationship that feels safe. From there, confidence grows. Tolerance increases. Gradually, the idea of school becomes less threatening.

Progress in SEND education is rarely linear. It is relational. It is contextual. It is often slow.

But it is still progress.

One parent reflected:

“He wasn’t ready to go back, but he was ready to try again. That was the first real sign things were changing.”

If progress in SEND education is defined only as attendance, we risk overlooking the early foundations that make attendance possible.

If we broaden our understanding of progress to include regulation, trust and emotional readiness, we begin to see the small but significant steps that precede sustainable change.

Accountability matters. Systems matter. School matters.

But so does readiness.

Sometimes the most important progress is the progress that isn’t yet visible on a register.