Missing homework and classwork assignments. Concepts covered in class that are never mastered. Missing questions on quizzes and tests as a result. An overall inability to keep up with new concepts because of missing foundational skills. Growing anxiety and physical illness symptoms. Spiraling in a downward direction.
This is the reality for a student who is chronically absent: after just a few missed days, there’s a tipping point from which it is nearly impossible to recover. Chronic absenteeism, when left unchecked, can drastically alter a child’s mental health and their ability to successfully complete a school year.
Early intervention is the key to combatting this issue before that tipping point occurs.
Prevalence of Chronic Absenteeism
Beyond just “having a lot of absences,” chronic absenteeism is typically defined by an excessive number of absences from school for one student in a single year. A Rand.org survey reported that 3 out of 10 districts noted chronic absenteeism of 20% or higher in the previous school year. According to the Return 2 Learn Tracker, 26% of students missed 10% or more of the 2023-2024 school year. If the average school year is 180 days, that means these students are missing 18 or more days, which is certainly significant.
Causes of Chronic Absenteeism
School leaders report that students miss for unnecessary reasons like minor symptoms of illness, necessary reasons like physical illness, and also mental health issues. They also believe that parents have begun to treat school attendance as more optional than compulsory (Rand.org).
In some cases, chronic absenteeism can also be a result of a family’s circumstances; students may be missing school to take care of younger siblings or sick parents, for instance, or there isn’t a parent at home to make sure the child gets on the bus on time every morning. Families with housing or transportation instability are also more likely to have attendance problems.
As school and district leaders, you can’t fix underlying problems that exist in students’ homes; however, there are things you can do to try and combat the rise of chronic absenteeism in your school community.
Ways to Combat Chronic Absenteeism in Schools
Educate families on the impact of absences.
Help parents understand that missing school or even one class has a “snowball effect” that can be difficult for students to overcome. They may also not be aware that missing a certain number of days could prevent their child from receiving credit for a course or even being promoted to the next grade level.
Enlist the parents as partners in their child’s education.
Make sure every family is informed & involved about what’s happening at school, from the curricular topics of the week to the family events they’re invited to attend. Keep them in the loop with regular, consistent updates and make an effort to provide translation to any families who don’t speak English at home.
Pay attention to the start of the issue.
If we know that a student reaches the “chronic” level of absenteeism at 18 absences, the time to intervene is far earlier. Take direct steps to intervene with students who begin to show signs of excessive absence & reach out to their parents or guardians to try to get to the root of the problem before it gets any worse.
Take measures to reduce bullying in school.
Fear of bullying leads many students to miss school and impacts their overall mental health. Do what you can to reduce bullying incidents in your school or district, including anonymous tip lines, anti-bullying education, and peer connection programs.
Connect families to community resources.
Whether they need financial support, job training, housing assistance, family counseling, or mental & physical wellness support: promote those resources in your community and make sure that someone at the school or district is reaching out to families to help them take advantage of the resources available.
Create a culture of inclusivity.
Today’s students have diverse identities, backgrounds, and personalities: and every last one of them deserves to feel welcome at school. Create a school culture that promotes inclusion so that all students feel that they belong.
Show off your positive culture & share your successes.
When students miss school, they should feel like they’re missing out. Make sure you promote the most positive aspects of your school culture on your website & social media posts, so that students see that school is actually a pretty positive place to be.
Build time for fun in the school day.
Clubs, sports, & other extracurricular activities incentivize attendance because students want to show up for these activities more than they want to come and learn about solving for X (sorry, Algebra teachers!). Make sure that there is regular time for these fun activities during the school day whenever possible; that way, students who have to rely on bus transportation don’t always have to miss out on all the fun.
Take care of the whole child.
Whether you offer access to guidance & community counselors, build social & emotional learning into your curriculum, or make connections to community resources for specific students, anything you can do to promote positive mental health will make a big difference for your students.
Incentivize positive attendance.
Give students incentives for attendance beyond just the select few who get “perfect attendance” at every end-of-year awards ceremony. Whenever possible, give the attendance incentives to groups of students rather than individuals (homeroom or 1st period, for example), so that positive peer pressure can come into play. Throw a party, give extra recess time, or bring popsicles or another treat to the winning group each month or 9 weeks to keep the enthusiasm going.
Make sure students know that they are missed when absent.
If you missed work for three days straight, wouldn't you want to feel you were missed? What happens to your students after they're absent? Do your teachers welcome them back and show genuine concern? When a student knows they are missed, they are encouraged to attend more regularly.
Celebrate every student whenever you can.
It’s no secret that in every grade level, there are a few students who seem to get all the praise, recognition, and accolades. And certainly they deserve it: those students work hard, get good grades, and show up consistently. But there’s a big reason they aren’t usually the kids who are chronically absent; school is great for those kids so of course they want to keep coming back. Find ways to give praise & rewards to every student, so that you can make everyone feel the positive attention they’re looking for.
There may be no “magic bullet” to stop chronic absenteeism in its tracks, but there are small steps you can take to try to make every student feel welcomed, included, and excited about coming to school. Timely, effective communication from school to home is the key for most of these strategies; partnering with parents & guardians against this problem can mean the difference between success and failure for these students. At Edlio, we believe every child deserves to feel supported at school and at home, and it begins with strong communication between the two.
