Schools are struggling to get chronic absenteeism to pre-pandemic levels, five years after it spiked during COVID-19.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10 percent of school days.
Pockets of hope can be seen around the country, as some school districts have managed to get a handle on it. But experts say it could still be a long road until national success is achieved.
During the height of the pandemic, national chronic absenteeism rates jumped to almost 30 percent from 15 percent, according to Attendance Works. Since then, chronic absenteeism has slowly declined but remains far from pre-pandemic levels.
While data is still emerging from the 2024-2025 school year, the 2023-2024 academic year saw chronic absenteeism rates of around 25 percent.
“I believe that states and schools and school district leaders are working very hard to curb their attendance rates, and I believe that it takes a lot longer to address some of these things. But that doesn’t mean that we should throw in the towel,” said Carl Felton, policy analyst on the P-12 team at EdTrust.
“I think that we have to continue to be consistent about setting clear attendance definitions, be consistent about supporting schools and leaders to make sure that they have the resources and strategic partnerships to support them with addressing chronic absenteeism,” he added.
High rates of chronic absenteeism lead to poor academic and social outcomes, along with financial consequences for some schools.
Attendance Works, a leading nonprofit aiming to fix chronic absenteeism, released a report showing the increase in data collection and transparency among states on this issue in recent years. It found 21 states have set tangible goals for their fight to keep kids in the classroom.
Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, pointed to multiple reasons chronic absenteeism becomes an issue, such student aversion to attending because of problems like bad grades, teenagers not engaged with the lesson plans or other students in meaningful ways, barriers like illness or home problems and misconceptions about missing school.
It is important, Chang notes, for schools to address issues at the beginning of the academic year to “help kids feel connected, help them feel engaged, make sure that there isn’t anything pushing them out of school and create positive school climates.”
“It also makes kids and families more willing to share when they’re experiencing a barrier so they can get resources to address it and makes them more likely to trust school staff when they’re sharing information,” she added.
Strategies deployed throughout the country have included better messaging systems to parents and students, changes in curriculum to keep students more engaged and overcoming barriers such as better access to transportation to school.
Forty percent of school leaders put combatting chronic absenteeism into their top three most pressing issues for the last school year, according to RAND, a research nonprofit. The issue has persisted, especially in urban areas, which RAND found were five to six times more likely to see extreme chronic absenteeism rates.
And one of the difficulties addressing the issues is some parents and students do not see the problem with it. RAND found one-quarter of students do not see chronic absenteeism as a big deal.
“The other thing that they’re doing is tailoring approaches by the age group of students. So, districts are saying for younger students, the key here is about building habits for students and families, to build up feelings about the importance of being in person at school,” said Melissa Diliberti, lead author of the RAND survey.
“And then, as students get older, districts are kind of switching away to focusing […] more on engagement,” she added. “One of the reasons that older kids might be less likely or more likely to miss school is that they don’t feel as engaged at school.”
While the situation seems dire, most experts said they believe schools will be able to recover to their pre-pandemic levels, albeit slowly.
Attendance Works propped up Virginia and Colorado as two states that have successfully worked to combat chronic absenteeism.
Virginia’s chronic absenteeism rate rose to 20 percent during the height of the pandemic but is already down to 15 percent, pointing to local collaboration with everyone from bus drivers to principals, investments in tutoring and reading, and creating new messaging systems for parents and students regarding absences.
Schools have “to keep pushing through” and “get more intentional and strategic,” Chang said.
“But the fact that you aren’t quite seeing as quick reductions as you might have in the beginning shouldn’t be a sign … don’t feel discouraged about that, feel motivated about it, because it’s a call that we have to do even deeper problem solving,” she added.
