["Journal of School Health, Volume 96, Issue 8, August 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\n\nBackground\nPsychological/functional absences may be obscured within broad medical leave categories in routine attendance records. This study examined whether parent‐reported psychological/functional absence is patterned and persistent in a Chinese secondary school context.\n\nMethods\nWe analyzed retrospective attendance records from 2183 students and 26,092 absence events across the 2022–2025 academic years. Parent‐reported reasons were coded into 8 categories. Event‐level logistic regression with student‐clustered robust standard errors examined associations with grade, sex, cohort, academic year, and month; student‐year lagged models examined recurrence.\n\nResults\nPsychological/functional absence accounted for 5179 events (19.8%). In the fully adjusted event‐level model, Grade 11 students had higher odds of psychological/functional absence than Grade 8 students (OR = 2.62, 95% CI [1.45, 4.72], p = 0.001). Prior‐year psychological/functional absence predicted current‐year occurrence (OR = 3.50, 95% CI [2.67, 4.59], p < 0.001), and prior‐year count predicted current‐year count (IRR = 1.06, 95% CI [1.04, 1.07], p < 0.001)\n\nImplications for School Health Policy, Practice, and Equity\nRepeated psychological/functional absences may help schools identify students needing timely, non‐punitive follow‐up.\n\nConclusions\nPsychological/functional absence appears to be a recurring administrative signal, but should not be interpreted as a clinical diagnosis.\n"]