Here are some of the best questions for a high school freshman student survey about attendance barriers, plus tips to create them. If you want to build your own or need inspiration, you can generate a survey in seconds with Specific.
Best open-ended questions for high school freshman student survey about attendance barriers
Open-ended questions let students express what’s really going on, in their own words. These questions work best when you want honest, specific stories and deeper insights, not just yes/no answers. They can reveal barriers you might not have predicted. Here are my top 10 open-ended questions for uncovering reasons behind high school freshman attendance issues:
Can you describe any challenges you face getting to school on time?
What are some reasons you or your friends might miss a day of school?
How does your morning routine affect your ability to attend school regularly?
Are there situations at school that make you want to skip class or arrive late?
How do you feel about the importance of attendance in your first year of high school?
What, if anything, would help you attend school more regularly?
How does your family or home environment affect your attendance?
Can you share a time when you struggled with attendance and what caused it?
What do you think schools could do better to help students like you attend more often?
If you could change one thing to make getting to school easier, what would it be?
Using open-ended questions gives students a chance to describe unique personal barriers and surface themes impossible to anticipate. This is vital, as chronic absenteeism remains a national crisis, with an estimated 14.7 million students missing school regularly—nearly double pre-pandemic numbers [1]. Getting full context from students drives real understanding.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school freshman student survey about attendance barriers
Sometimes, multiple-choice questions are more efficient—especially if you need quick stats or want to ease students into a conversation. They’re also easier for some students, removing mental load and focusing attention on the key issues.
Question: Which of these makes it hardest for you to attend school regularly?
Transportation problems (bus/car issues)
Feeling sick or tired
Family responsibilities at home
Don't feel safe at school
Other
Question: How often do you worry about missing class or being late?
Rarely or never
Sometimes
Often
Almost every day
Question: Who usually helps or motivates you to attend school?
Family
Friends
Teachers or counselors
No one
When to follow up with "why?" If a student selects an answer, it’s often just the starting point. When you want more context (“why did you pick this?”), follow up to unearth real obstacles. For example, if a student picks “transportation problems,” you could ask, “Could you tell me more about what makes transportation difficult for you?” This is where follow-up questions deliver richer insights.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add “Other” for structured questions. This lets students explain a barrier you didn’t consider. Specific can dig deeper with a smart follow-up: “You said ‘Other.’ Can you describe what’s going on?”—uncovering new issues you may have missed.
Multiple-choice questions are especially helpful in quantifying top attendance barriers—useful given that, in some districts like Washington D.C., as many as 60% of high schoolers are chronically absent [2].
NPS-style question for high school freshman student attendance barriers survey
NPS, or Net Promoter Score, usually measures willingness to recommend a service, but it adapts brilliantly to gauge student feelings about school attendance. You can ask: “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to attend school every day for the rest of this term?” The responses quickly reveal groups who need encouragement versus those already motivated. Follow-up questions can tailor support and reveal why attendance is a challenge for certain students. Try an NPS survey for high school freshman students about attendance barriers.
NPS-style questions help you quickly identify promoters (students who rarely miss school), passives, and detractors (those at risk of chronic absence), so interventions can be personalized and prioritized.
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-up questions have a huge impact on survey quality. If you’re serious about understanding why students miss class, then the real gold lies in probing after the initial response. We created a feature in Specific to make follow-up questions automatic—so every answer gets the context you need. Ever wondered how this works? See our article about automatic AI follow-up questions.
High school freshman student: “I miss school sometimes because of family stuff.”
AI follow-up: “Could you tell me a bit more about the family responsibilities that make it difficult to attend?”
When you don’t follow up, you risk ending up with vague responses—think about getting “family stuff” over and over. Without probing, you’ll never learn whether that means childcare, medical issues, or schedule conflicts.
How many followups to ask? Two to three follow-ups are generally enough to gather a full picture without tiring students out. Plus, Specific lets you limit this and skip to the next question when you’ve covered enough ground. It keeps the conversation smooth.
This makes it a conversational survey: When you automatically follow up, your survey transforms into a natural conversation. Respondents feel heard, and you get detailed, actionable feedback every time.
AI response analysis, qualitative feedback made easy: Even if you gather a lot of open-ended responses, analyzing what students are saying is easier than ever thanks to AI. You can learn how to make sense of these insights using our guide on how to analyze responses from high school freshman student attendance surveys and our feature on AI survey response analysis.
These automated followups are a new and powerful tool. Try generating a survey yourself and see how the process feels—you’ll never want to go back to static forms.
How to prompt AI (like ChatGPT) to get great attendance barrier survey questions
If you want to brainstorm with AI, the trick is in how you prompt. Start basic:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for high school freshman student survey about attendance barriers.
But for great results, add context about who you are, what you want, and the problems you’re exploring. For example:
I am a school counselor looking to understand why some ninth graders struggle with attendance this year. My goal is to identify new patterns, so we can develop better support and interventions. Can you suggest 10 open-ended survey questions for high school freshman student survey about attendance barriers, focusing on both school and home challenges?
Once AI gives you questions, organize and refine:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Pick your most relevant categories—let’s say “family barriers” or “transportation”—and dive deeper:
Generate 10 questions for the category ‘family barriers’ about high school freshman student attendance.
This way, you get more focused, actionable questions with every iteration.
What is a conversational survey—and why do they work?
A conversational survey is exactly what it sounds like: you (or your AI) chat with respondents as if you were having a real conversation. Every response is an opportunity to dig deeper and get clarity in real time, just like you would in a live interview. Conversational surveys blow past the limitations of old-school, static survey forms—think fewer dropoffs, richer responses, and higher engagement. If you’ve only used manual survey creation, expect a surprise: AI-driven surveys get you up and running, painlessly, and adapt on the fly to what people actually say.
Manual surveys | AI-generated conversational surveys |
---|---|
Slow and tedious to build | Instantly generated from a simple prompt |
Rigid questions, little opportunity to clarify | Dynamic follow-up based on answers |
Often ignored by students—feels like homework | Feels like chat, removes friction, boosts engagement |
Painful to analyze responses | AI summarizes and finds themes for you |
Why use AI for high school freshman student surveys? AI-generated surveys remove guesswork. You get the right questions, tailored to your students’ context, plus the ability to adapt on the fly. This is crucial when addressing complex problems like chronic absenteeism—which, as shown by studies in the San Carlos, Arizona school district, can affect more than 75% of certain student groups [3]. If you want examples or want to learn how to create a survey with Specific, we cover every step in our how-to guides.
Specific’s conversational surveys provide a best-in-class experience for both the creator and the respondent—making the feedback process smooth and effective. Try building an AI survey example yourself; it’s as easy as sending a message.
See this attendance barriers survey example now
Unlock richer student feedback about attendance obstacles—create a smart, conversational survey and see real insights in minutes. Don’t miss the chance to discover what truly impacts your students’ attendance journeys.