Best questions for high school sophomore student survey about attendance barriers

Here are some of the best questions for a high school sophomore student survey about attendance barriers, plus tips on building questions that spark honest feedback. We use Specific to generate tailored surveys for this exact audience in seconds—if you want to build your own, it’s just a prompt away.

Best open-ended questions for high school sophomores on attendance barriers

Open-ended questions give sophomores space to explain their unique experiences around attendance barriers. This format is perfect when you want honest, nuanced insights rather than just ticking boxes—especially since the reasons behind chronic absenteeism are often deeply personal or complex. Open responses uncover themes you might not have anticipated and help you see both the "why" and "how" of the problem.

1. What are the main reasons you or your friends sometimes miss school?

2. Can you describe a recent situation when you couldn’t attend school as planned?

3. How does your mood or mental health affect your attendance?

4. What challenges outside of school influence your ability to be present every day?

5. How does your experience at school (the environment, teachers, or classmates) impact your motivation to attend?

6. What role does transportation play in making it to school on time or at all?

7. If you’ve ever had to work or help your family during school hours, can you share what led to this?

8. What support or changes would make it easier for you to attend school regularly?

9. How do your parents or guardians influence your attendance?

10. Is there anything else you wish teachers, counselors, or school leaders understood about why students miss school?

In the 2020–21 school year, nearly 14.7 million students nationwide were chronically absent—almost double the pre-pandemic numbers [1]. Open-ended questions are crucial to truly understand these growing attendance barriers and design interventions that address students’ actual needs, not just what we think is happening in their lives.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school sophomores

Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you need to quantify attendance barrier trends or start a conversation where students might feel more comfortable initially selecting from options. Sometimes, it’s easier for a respondent to quickly pick a relatable answer—and you can follow up for deeper insights based on their choice.

Question: Which of the following makes it hardest for you to attend school regularly?

• Lack of transportation

• Health issues (illness, chronic conditions)

• Mental health or stress

• Lack of motivation/interest

• Family responsibilities

• Unsupportive or negative school climate

• Other

Question: How often do you feel safe and supported at school?

• Always

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

Question: In the past two weeks, how many days have you missed school for reasons not related to illness?

• None

• 1-2 days

• 3-4 days

• 5 or more days

When to follow up with “why?” If a student selects “Mental health or stress” or “Family responsibilities,” always ask a “why” or "can you tell me more?" as a followup. This gives them a chance to share the details behind their choice, revealing root causes you might otherwise miss.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Use "Other" when you want to uncover issues not captured by your options. If someone selects “Other,” a followup question like “Can you describe your situation?” can highlight overlooked attendance barriers—for example, exposure to violence or economic pressures that don’t fit into the main list [2][3].

Should you use an NPS question for a high school sophomore attendance survey?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a classic question structure typically used to gauge loyalty or satisfaction, like “How likely are you to recommend our school to a friend?” But for attendance barriers, it can work as: “How likely are you to recommend this school as a place students want to attend every day?”

This style of question offers a quick snapshot of student engagement and perceived school climate—two major factors in absenteeism [4]. Students who score low (detractors) can be asked, “Why did you give that score?” and the follow-ups can dig into safety, climate, transportation, or support issues. Want to see this in action? Check out our NPS survey template for attendance barriers.

The power of follow-up questions

Automated followup questions turn a survey into a conversation. With AI-driven follow-ups, instead of stopping at a surface-level response, you get rich context without chasing students down for clarification. Specific’s AI asks the right questions in real time, adapting to each answer so you capture the full story. This saves huge amounts of time—no endless email or paper back-and-forth. And since followups happen instantly, students don’t lose their train of thought or get bored by static forms.

• High school sophomore: “I miss school because my bus sometimes doesn’t come on time.”

• AI follow-up: “How often does transportation make you late or miss school altogether? Can you describe what happens on those days?”

How many followups to ask? In our experience, 2–3 targeted followups are enough to get to the root. It’s smart to let students skip to the next question if they’ve already explained themselves. With Specific, you can control the depth and pacing of followups to keep the experience comfortable and productive.

This makes it a conversational survey—students open up more when a survey feels like a real chat, not an interrogation. That’s why conversational, AI-driven surveys work where static forms fall flat.

AI analysis, smart themes, and summary: Even if you collect tons of unstructured feedback, it’s easy to analyze—all responses can be summarized and explored with AI (see our guide). AI helps you spot hidden patterns and track themes that matter the most, without drowning in text.

These automated followup questions are a new way to survey students—try generating a survey and experience the difference for yourself.

How to craft prompts to generate strong survey questions

AI survey tools are only as good as the prompts you use. Start with the basics:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for High School Sophomore Student survey about Attendance Barriers.

But AI does even better if you give it more context—the goal, your role, or the specific challenges you want to explore. Here’s how:

I’m a school counselor creating a survey to understand why high school sophomores at our city school are struggling with attendance. Suggest 10 open-ended questions, focusing on personal, family, and community barriers—including mental health and school climate.

Once you have a set of questions, ask AI to cluster them:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, after reviewing the categories, prompt for deeper refinement:

Generate 10 questions for the categories “Family commitments,” “Mental health,” and “School climate.”

This way, you generate detailed, targeted questions that are a perfect fit for sophomores’ lived experiences with absenteeism.

What is a conversational survey (and how is it different)?

A conversational survey uses AI to engage respondents in an interactive, chat-like experience—instead of firing off static survey forms, it adapts questions in real time, naturally probing for details when needed. This means you get nuanced context and spot patterns, not just fragmented data points.

To see how easy it is to create this kind of survey, check out our guide to survey creation.

Why use AI for high school sophomore surveys? AI delivers personalized conversations at scale, captures context you wouldn’t think to ask about, and nails the balance between qualitative and quantitative data. An AI survey example for attendance barriers lets you see not just what students are struggling with, but why—helping design smarter interventions before absenteeism becomes entrenched.

We designed Specific to offer the smoothest, most engaging conversational survey experience around—for creators who want real insight, and for students who deserve to be heard.

See this attendance barriers survey example now

Get to the root of attendance problems—see what students really face and design better solutions with conversational surveys that ask, listen, and adapt as the conversation unfolds.