1. Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year. Half the students who miss 2-4 days in September miss nearly a month of school.
2. Chronic absence appears to have doubled by the end of the 2021-22 school year. We estimate it now affects nearly one out of three students (or 16 million vs. 8 million students in the 2018-19 school year).
3. Absenteeism and its ill effects start early.
4. Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back.
5. By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
6. Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance. That’s just two days a month, and that’s known as chronic absence.
7. 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.
8. When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and graduation chances.
9. Attendance improves when schools positively engage students and parents and provide mentors for chronically absent students.
10. 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.
