This paper investigates the relationship between educational attainment in compulsory schooling and truancy. Using data from the Youth Cohort Study (YCS) of England and Wales and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), we estimate the impact of truancy on indicators of educational performance. The YCS measures both truancy and attainment as ordered responses. Our bivariate ordered probit model with mixed effects deals with both the ordered nature of the data and the potential endogeneity of truancy. In addition, it allows us to estimate the distribution of the truancy effect on educational attainment.