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Today, in a country where more than one in 10 students miss nearly a month of school every year,
improving student attendance is an essential, cost-effective but often overlooked strategy for ensuring
our students are on-track to learn and succeed.
Put simply, if students don’t go to school they can’t benefit from what is taught in the
classroom. This is as true for kindergartners as it is for high school students.
What is chronic absence?
Chronic absence is defined as missing 10% or more of school for any reason, excused or
unexcused. That’s about 18 days a year, or two days a month.
How big a problem is it?
• As many as 7.5 million students are chronically absent nationwide. That includes one in 10 kindergartners.
• As early as preK, chronic absence predicts poor attendance and academic performance in later grades.
• Poor children are more likely to be chronically absent and more likely to lose ground academically.
• By 6th grade, chronic absence is a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
• By 9th grade it becomes a better predictor of dropout rates than eighth grade test scores.
• Classroom churn from too many absences affects all students, even those who attend regularly.
Why is the problem overlooked?
Schools and districts often don’t look at all the right data. They track how many students show up every day and how many are skipping
school, but not how many student are missing 10% of the school year. Parents and teachers don’t realize how quickly absences can add up
to academic trouble.
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