1 Compulsory Education and Failure to Go to School -- Origins of Compulsory Education in Britain -- Compulsory Education Today -- Absence from School -- Reluctance to Attend School -- Truancy -- School Refusal -- School Withdrawal -- Excessive Absence from School -- The Management of Truancy -- References -- 2 Juvenile Courts and Truancy -- Delinquency and Truancy -- School Attendance, Visits by Education Welfare Officers, and Care Proceedings -- Other Studies -- Role of the Courts in Truancy -- References -- 3 Truancy and the Juvenile Courts in Leeds -- Legal Sanctions -- From First Absence to Court Proceedings -- Adjournment Procedure -- A Case Is Proved -- Evidence of Attendance -- Nonappearance in Court -- A Random Trial in Operation -- 4 Supervision or Adjournment? -- A Retrospective Comparison -- A Randomly Controlled Trial -- Implications -- Criticism -- References -- 5 Frequency of Adjournment -- Two Varieties of Adjournment and a Letters Procedure -- Continuing Adjournment and No Order Made -- Comments -- References -- 6 Interviews -- Social Reports -- A Systematic Enquiry -- Effects of Interviews -- References -- 7 Are Interim-Care Orders a Necessary Part of the Adjournment System? -- Evaluation of Interim-Care Orders -- Comments -- Predictors of Success -- References -- 8 Features of Severe School Attendance Problems -- The Procedure -- Reliability -- Principal Component Analysis -- Findings -- Features of School Attendance Categories -- EWO Questionnaire -- Comments -- References -- 9 The Use of the Randomized Experiment to Evaluate Alternative Court Disposals -- Ethics of Social Experimentation -- Random Allocation of Judicial Measures -- Consent -- Privacy and Confidentiality -- Public Scrutiny -- Report of the Federal Judicial Center Advisory Committee on Experimentation in the Law -- References -- Legal Case References -- 10 The Leeds Truancy Project: A Magistrate's View -- How the Investigation Arose and Developed -- Attitudes to Research in the Courts -- Does the Experimental Approach Generate Changes in Law and Social Policy? -- References -- 11 Conclusions -- Summary -- Comments -- References -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Author Index.