Dive Brief:
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Every state except New Hampshire now publishes chronic absenteeism data on its department of education website, according to a report by Attendance Works released Tuesday. The organization noted that when it was founded in 2010, Maryland was the only state to do so.
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A majority of states — 43 — had published their chronic absenteeism data for 2023-24 as of April. By comparison, only nine states had made prior-year chronic absenteeism data available by April in 2021, when chronic absenteeism awareness was on the rise due to the pandemic.
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Most states provide chronic absenteeism data by district, school, school level and specific student groups. However, only 17 states break data down by grade, making it difficult to detect when chronic absenteeism levels are elevated for particular grades.
Dive Insight:
Regularly sharing chronic absenteeism and attendance rates through public dashboards and reports to stakeholders — including educators and parents — is key to addressing absenteeism levels, which spiked during the pandemic and remain high in its wake, according to Attendance Works.
While the effects of chronic absenteeism have impacted states across the board, only 20 states have set a measurable target for chronic absenteeism, Attendance Works data shows.
"Whether or not states adopt chronic absence as an accountability metric under ESSA [the Every Student Succeeds Act], they can hold themselves accountable by setting a measurable target for reducing chronic absence and using data to engage in continuous improvement," the Attendance Works report released Tuesday said. It called states "key players" in promoting approaches to prevent chronic absenteeism.
So far, 15 states and the District of Columbia have committed to halving chronic absence. And 22 states offer guidance on how to reduce it through prevention.
“State leadership to reduce chronic absence is crucial to ensure that all schools and districts, not just a few innovators, have the tools and skills to support excellent attendance," said Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, in a Tuesday statement. "State level actions designed to enhance data comparability, emphasize taking a team approach and encourage a multi-tiered system of support are essential for achieving meaningful reductions in chronic absence.”
Attendance Works suggests that states:
- Standardize the definition of chronic absenteeism nationwide to ensure data is useful and comparable.
- Provide grade-level insights.
- Use a multi-tiered system, saving truancy court as a last resort rather than a default approach.
- Provide regularly updated dashboards and reports to everyone, including families and educators.
Both Attendance Works, which advocates for national and state initiatives to improve school
attendance, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that chronic absenteeism nearly doubled — rising from 16% before the pandemic to 30% during the 2021-22 school year.
It then dipped slightly to 28% in the 2022-23 school year, according to an analysis released by Attendance Works in January.
Although there is no national data for the 2023-24 school year yet, the American Enterprise Institute's January update to its state-by-state tracker shows that rates declined in 29 out of 36 states and the District of Columbia compared to the previous school year.
