Summary.Information was obtained from 30 comprehensive schools and their feeding primary schools about all children who missed at least 50 per cent of possible attendances in the first half of the 1973 autumn term. Results showed no major differences in persistent absentee rates between the reception year at first schools and the final year at middle schools. In contrast, the figures for comprehensive schools showed a sharp rise, with a peak in the fifth year. Truancy accounted for only a small proportion of unjustified absence in all age groups. No association was found between the size of a comprehensive school and the number of persistent absentees. On the other hand, persistent absenteeism was closely associated with socio‐economic hardship in the school's catchment area though there is reason to suppose that variables within individual schools also influence the figures. The number of children suspended from a school was associated neither with a high incidence of socio‐economic hardship, nor with large schools, nor with high persistent absentee rates. In contrast, high suspension rates were associated with former selective schools. It is concluded that suspension rates may not reflect the amount or the degree of deviant behaviour in a sch