Tackling Chronic Absenteeism

Posted by AmeriCorps on October 24, 2023

Student absenteeism has increased significantly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of public-school students missing at least 10 percent of the school year, either as excused or unexcused absences, has almost doubled since the 2018-2019 school year. One study found that nearly 30 percent of all students met this threshold to be identified as “chronically absent” during the 2021-2022 school year, and early data from the 2022-2023 indicates a similar trend. Research shows that when students are chronically absent, they are less likely to be reading proficiently by third grade and less likely to graduate from high school.

We all have a role to play in combating chronic absenteeism. AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers play a critical role in building strong, supportive relationships with students so that they remain in the classroom.

It is critical that all those interacting with students and families stress the importance of good attendance habits. Here are a few ways that you or your organization can provide extra support and guidance to address student absenteeism.

• Emphasize the importance of attendance from day one and recognize good and improved attendance.
• Support school staff in reaching out to chronically absent students and their families to identify barriers to attendance.
• Talk to others in your community about why attendance matters and suggest they get involved.
• Create contracts or participation agreements with parents, making clear your expectations on attendance.
• Track program attendance and chronic absence numbers carefully and share with the school or school district.
• In afterschool programs, consider making school-day attendance a requirement for participation in the program.
• Work with a local school to provide incentives for good or improved attendance such as gift certificates, books, healthy snacks, or backpacks.

Here are additional tools and resources that may help you:

• Handouts for Families: These handouts, available in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, help families understand the connection between attendance and academic success.
• Health Handouts: After several years of disrupted schooling due to COVID-19, these handouts help families understand when they should or shouldn’t send a student to school if they have health-related concerns.
• Why Attendance Matters: Making the Case: These handouts can help you communicate with community agencies, nonprofit organizations, churches, and other local partners about what they can do and why they should pitch in.
• Attendance Playbook: Smart Strategies for Reducing Student Absenteeism Post-Pandemic: This playbook highlights more than two dozen effective, readily scalable interventions, identifying the problem each solves, summarizing supporting research, and highlighting schools that have used the strategy successfully.

If your organization has tools, resources, or success stories about keeping students engaged and attending school, we’d love to highlight you! Please send them to P12education@cns.gov.