Chronic absenteeism continues to impact students. For a student to be chronically absent, they need to miss at least 10 percent of school days. During the 2021–2022 school year, 30 percent of students nationwide were chronically absent. Compared to 2018–2019, this percentage has nearly doubled. Of the states that have released data from the 2022–2023 school year, most have shown marginal improvements of less than five percentage points compared to 2021–2022, while some actually had higher rates of chronic absenteeism than the previous year.
Chronically absent students are less likely to read at grade level, more likely to drop out of high school, and less likely to attend college than their peers with satisfactory attendance. And repeated years of chronic absenteeism only worsen these impacts. Furthermore, it is often clear early in the school year who is at risk of becoming chronically absent. Students who miss two to four days of school in September are five times more likely to be chronically absent than students who miss fewer than two days.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were chronically absent for a multitude of reasons: academic struggles, chronic illness, difficulties with food or housing, bullying, caring for a family member, and at-home responsibilities, among many others. The COVID-19 pandemic has only added to that list. Students are now chronically absent at a higher rate due to struggles with mental health, transportation, feeling safe or welcome in school, and the grief that comes with losing a loved one. Every student is different and has a unique set of needs and reasons for why they may be chronically absent. Attendance data that is disaggregated by school, grade, neighborhood, and demographic variables, like gender and socioeconomic status, can help shine a light on these reasons for chronic absenteeism.
To address the growing trend of chronic absenteeism, decisionmakers need to understand who is chronically absent and why. Accurate, timely, disaggregated data is a crucial component in this pursuit.
If schools have access to robust data to identify groups of students who are on track to be chronically absent early, they can address barriers to attendance and reduce the number of students who become chronically absent by the end of the school year. Connecticut and Rhode Island are two states that are currently collecting, publishing, and using timely data to address potential instances of chronic absenteeism quickly and improve student attendance.
- Using monthly attendance data, Connecticut increased student attendance by 15 percent for chronically absent students in their Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP) during the 2021–2022 school year. Seeing the rise in chronic absenteeism both in their state and nationally, Governor Ned Lamont and the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) used federal COVID-19 recovery funding to launch LEAP, a comprehensive program designed to build relationships with families and improve student attendance through home visits and targeted student intervention. Prior to launching LEAP, CSDE had been collecting chronic absence data monthly. Using this data, Connecticut was able to identify districts, schools, and students most in need of this program and address the barriers keeping these students out of school. DQC has highlighted some other ways states have used COVID-19 relief dollars here.
- In Rhode Island, chronic absenteeism has decreased by 5.2 percent and 4.9 percent over the last two school years (2022–2023 and 2023–2024), in part due to access to real-time attendance data. Students, parents, educators, and the public can track chronic absence rates for schools in real time using Rhode Island’s Student Attendance Leaderboard. This tool is updated daily and shows the number of students enrolled in each school, the number and percentage of students on track to be chronically absent, and the difference in chronically absent students compared to a year ago. Robust data systems like this one allow individuals, the public, and policymakers to see how schools are doing and keep them accountable in addressing chronic absenteeism, while also identifying schools and students early in the year that may be struggling with attendance.
State data collection and reporting on chronic absenteeism has improved significantly over the last three years. 18 percent of states included chronic absenteeism for the previous year on state report cards in 2021, 33 percent did so in 2022, and 80 percent included chronic absenteeism data in 2023. According to Attendance Works, three states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island) and the District of Columbia now publicly report their data prior to the end of the school year. With faster access to more up-to-date data, school and community leaders are enabled to intervene earlier and address cases of chronic absenteeism, hopefully, before students fall too far behind.
What a chronically absent student needs is for someone to know they are chronically absent, understand why, and then address their unique need.
With timely attendance data, schools can address cases of chronic absenteeism early, policymakers can evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and make decisions that positively impact student learning, the public can hold their governments accountable and advocate for change, and students can avoid the effects of missing too much school. By harnessing the power of timely, disaggregated, relevant data, every state can ensure students’ unique needs are met and that students are in school receiving the instruction they need to succeed.
