Hedy Chang coined the term “chronic absence” in a 2008 research report with Mariajose Romero and went on to found Attendance Works in 2010. Through these efforts, Chang jumpstarted the important work to not only elevate the impact of missed days on school success but also change the way parents, educators, policymakers and the public see the problem and prioritize solutions. This transformative approach took traditional attendance data and helped educators understand the impact on learning and unpack and address the reasons why students weren’t showing up.
Today, students are considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of school for any reason. Chronic absence rates spiked during COVID and have been slow to drop. Getting chronic absenteeism rates under control is an ongoing priority.
Chang warns us about the broader impact when 20% or more of students are chronically absent.
“The churn that’s happening in classrooms is now affecting everyone. It’s affecting the ability of teachers to teach, teachers to set classroom norms and kids to learn,” Chang said during a recent podcast interview.
Attendance Works has identified four causes and spelled out specific actions state and local education leaders can take to find and address the specific reasons for excused and unexcused absences, helping them move beyond punitive approaches. The more proactive approaches include addressing barriers that make it difficult to get to school, aversions that make youth reluctant to be in school, misconceptions about the importance of regular attendance and reasons for student disengagement that speak to the need to improve the quality, quantity, and variety of learning experiences and give credit for real-world learning.
To advance a bipartisan commitment to improving attendance, Attendance Works, EdTrust, and Nat Malkus with AEI have launched The 50% State Challenge, encouraging chief state school officers to publicly adopt a goal of reducing chronic absence by 50% in 5 years. Maryland, where I live, is one of 18 states to make the pledge.
Chronic absences in Maryland have declined gradually since 2022 but have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Chronic absence rates were significantly higher for high schoolers before the pandemic and have been slower to decline post-pandemic.
Maryland’s efforts to address the problem reflect Attendance Works’ emphasis on addressing root causes. They include partnering with Attendance Works, establishing a state task force, analyzing school climate data, utilizing the state’s School Mental Health Response Team, looking at strategies in use by Community Schools in the state, offering technical assistance through toolkits and virtual workshops and engaging in monthly analysis of chronic absence data. As states lean into implementing nonpunitive ways to address the root causes behind being absent, it may be time to revisit what it means for youth to be fully present, especially by high school, given the national push to ensure learners are building real-world skills through real-life experiences.
The Reinvention Lab shares this interest in ensuring young people can engage in real-world learning experiences and have that count towards attendance. In 2024, after interviews, workshops and findings reviews with young people, principals, teachers, entrepreneurs, researchers and policy analysts, they concluded that “the term itself may be limiting our ability to look at — and address — the different causes of youth absenteeism.” They coined a new term — “the new absenteeism” — to highlight the possible ways that being physically present and being mentally present combine to support five profiles of attendance and engagement.
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The first profile — Systematically Blocked — reflects our current thinking about chronic absence as being linked to root causes that make it hard for youth to show up consistently. The other four profiles challenge two overly simplistic assumptions: When students are in school, they are learning. When they are not in school, they aren’t learning. The authors help spell out the distinctions with a characteristic phrase for each:
- Systematically Blocked: “I know school’s important, but life happens” is the phrase the report authors use to characterize students who will respond well to barrier reduction strategies.
- Engaged: “I’m just fine” is the phrase associated with learners who show up regularly because they are authentically engaged.
- Real-life Learners: “I’m doing something different” captures those who aren’t rejecting education overall but are engaged in learning elsewhere. While technically marked absent, it’s because they’re pursuing alternatives that feel more meaningful to them or better fit their learning styles.
- Checked Out: “I’m here, but what’s the point?” is the sentiment voiced by youth who have mentally checked out. They are showing up, but their hearts and minds are elsewhere.
- In Crisis: “I’m done” captures the despair of young people who have been defeated by life in general or developed a deep distrust of the education system.
By not equating presence with engagement, the additional profiles may help explain why high school chronic absenteeism rates in Maryland are 50% higher than rates for middle and elementary school students and are declining sluggishly. Young people might be physically present but checked out. Should that count as rigorous learning? Or they might be like my now-grown daughter, an overachiever who was engaged in school but, because she was a real-life learner, left school an afternoon a week to be an intern in a research lab on the NIH campus or traveled several times a year for Youth Orchestra concerts. Both experiences counted as excused absences. But because they were not formal internships arranged by the school, they may have resulted in her being labeled chronically absent by today’s definition.
These new profiles bring new dimensionality to school districts’ efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism simply by creating scenarios that connect with districts’ parallel efforts to improve learner engagement through strategies like project-based learning, internships, advisories and wellness initiatives.
[Related: Why unconstrained kids need unconstrained ecosystems]
The 2015 federal Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to track and report chronic absenteeism. It ushered in a new level of transparency that was essential to addressing serious access issues. Using these New Absenteeism profiles to introduce the dimension of engagement could help shepherd in changes in state accountability policies to look not just at attendance rates but at where and when young people are truly engaged in learning.
With each passing year, the future features of schools become a present reality for more high school students. The need to measure and give credit for learning beyond the school building, beyond the school day and year, and beyond the schools’ direct control will require us to not only embrace the new absenteeism, but also to find ways to factor into our calculations authentically engaged learning whenever and wherever it happens. Attendance Works does an amazing job of encouraging educators to connect with students and their families to find out what is causing them to miss school, and to codevelop solutions. Their focus on transforming individual data previously used to punish students and families into transparent data is supporting educators to transform systems. Their four causes chart clearly spells out the important role increasing engagement plays in reducing chronic absence. And the fact that they are a trusted, go-to resource for state and local school leaders makes them a natural ally in the call for additional measures.
As the authors of the New Absenteeism study state, “School leaders across the country are increasingly confronting these new profiles of absenteeism, yet our systems remain calibrated to address yesterday’s challenges.”
Perhaps the next step is developing companion ways to track attendance and engagement in all of the places young people go to learn. Looking at what motivates students to attend when they don’t have to could be the secret to helping communities optimize the connections and conditions that help youth thrive.
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Karen Pittman is the board chair of Attendance Works. In her columns, she is exploring the research behind the statement, “When Youth Thrive, We All Thrive.”
