When a child misses many days of school over the years could this be an indication of parental alienation?

A child missing many days of school over several years could potentially provide further evidence of parental alienation when combined with other factors. Here's how it may indicate parental alienation:

If one parent is consistently allowing or encouraging the child to miss school without valid reasons, it could be a sign of one parent attempting to disrupt the child's educational routine in order to alienate them from the other parent, especially if their other parent is more successful than the alienating parent. In this case the more successful, targeted parent, will regard schooling on a higher level which will cause conflict between the parents and possibly the child. Alienating parents will go out of their way to seek conflict with the targeted parent by any means possible, even at the expense of their own child’s future.

By frequently keeping the child out of school, a parent might be isolating the child from peers, teachers, and other support systems that could provide different perspectives and counteract the negative influence of parental alienation. Anyone who believes or portrays a different view point of the targeted parent will be cut out of the child’s life. If that person or persons attend or work in the same school as the child, the alienating parent will do whatever it takes to keep the child and those individuals apart.

Allowing a child to miss school regularly can create a sense of dependency on the alienating parent, making it easier for them to manipulate the child's perceptions and beliefs about the other parent. Keeping the child with them creates a dynamic where the child relies heavily on the alienating parent for companionship and support. Keeping them dependent makes it harder for the child to recognize that they are actually being manipulated and abused, and even harder for the child to speak out when or if they do realize the tactics of the alienating parent.

Chronic absenteeism can have detrimental effects on a child's emotional well-being and social development, potentially reinforcing feelings of alienation and estrangement from the non-custodial parent. It is important that school administrators, teachers and counselors take note when a child constantly misses many days of school, especially when there is a presence of family conflict.