Student Attendance

The most recent federal data show that in the 2020-21 school year, at least 14.7 million students nationwide were chronically absent. This means that chronic absence has almost doubled from the more than 8 million students, pre-Covid-19, who were missing so many days of school that they were academically at risk. Read more...

Absenteeism and its ill effects start early. Read more... 

Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back. Read more...

By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school. Read more...

Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most school districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance. That’s just two days a month and that’s known as chronic absence. Read more...

Students who live in communities with high levels of poverty are four times more likely to be chronically absent than others often for reasons beyond their control, such as unstable housing, unreliable transportation and a lack of access to health care. Read more...

When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating. Read more...

Attendance improves when schools engage students and parents in positive ways and when schools provide mentors for chronically absent students. Read more...

Most school districts and states don’t look at all the right data to improve school attendance. They track how many students show up every day and how many are skipping school without an excuse, but not how many are missing so many days in excused and unexcused absence that they are headed off track academically. Read more...