Addressing Student Absenteeism
Absenteeism refers to students who miss school often enough that they are considered chronically absent from school. In most states, a student is considered chronically absent when they have missed 10% or more of school. The percentage is regardless of excuse/nonexcuse and cause (sickness, death in the family, vacation, aversion, etc.). This is because once this 10% threshold is breached, the cumulative amount of instructional time missed is correlated with a wide range of educational impacts such as:
a reduced likelihood of graduation,
lower academic achievements,
fewer opportunities to form positive relationships with school staff and peers
increased risk of behavior and social emotional challenges (Sprick 2019)
For many years, the national average for absenteeism remained fairly steady at between 10-15% of students (Balfanz 2012).
Since the Covid-19 Pandemic began, that trend has been significantly altered, with upwards of 1 in 3 students now missing 10%+ of school days (Attendance Works, 2023).
In Kansas for instance, the three years leading up to the Pandemic each saw 13.9% of students chronically absent. This rate has nearly doubled to 25.4% during the 2021-22 school year. This “All Students” chart illustrates this overall trend in Kansas*, but this trend is certainly not unique to only the Sunflower State.
* Data retrieved from https://datacentral.ksde.org/. Years represent the ending year of each school year (e.g., 2022 is the 2021–22 school year).
Additionally, the percentages of chronically absent Kansas students from various subgroups often illustrate an even more concerning pattern. Upwards of 30-50% of students in groups such as English Language Learners, Homeless, and Foster Care are Chronically Absent in the state of Kansas.
One unique characteristic of absenteeism is that it not only negatively impacts the chronically absent student, it also impacts the rest of the classroom as well. Both Gottfried (2010) and Musser (2011) have found that schools that have high rates of absenteeism have to slow the overall instructional pace and spend more time with remediation, which in turn reduces learning outcomes for all students. High rates of absenteeism are also difficult on teachers, as it increases the amount of planning time required to meet the needs of all students, communicate to students and families about how students can get caught up on the missed instruction, and is correlated with higher staff turnover rates.
Additionally, absenteeism puts a strain upon families. When students miss school, parents and guardians often have to miss work, appointments, and other obligations to care for the child. Alternatively, the child is unsupervised during their time out of school, which could lead to the child spending that time in a variety of less desirable activities. Students who are chronically absent, especially those that have pervasive absenteeism (lasting several years), have heightened risks of delinquency, drug abuse, and lower overall preparation for life outside of the school, which results in diminished community outcomes as well (Levin 2007).
While there is no single silver bullet when it comes to addressing absenteeism, the good news is that there is a wide variety of prevention, early intervention, and intensive supports that are very effective in addressing the issue. According to IES REL Mid-Atlantic, there are five core features of a comprehensive strategy to prevent and remediate attendance concerns. They are:
- Engage students and parents to develop positive relationships before any attendance issues occur.
- Recognize good and improved attendance.
- Monitor attendance data.
- Provide personalized early outreach.
- Develop programmatic responses to common barriers that affect groups of students.
Combining these features together in a school creates something commonly called a Multi Tier System of Support (MTSS), which helps to coordinate prevention, data informed decision making, and intervention efforts into one coherent approach. More resources on these core features is available under the “10. Further Reading” tab.
As with most problems in education, absenteeism is unlikely to be solved by one person, one student at a time. For this reason, it is advised to have a team that consists of administration, general education teachers, special education teachers, and support services (such as social workers and counselors). This type of team may already exist within a building or district (often in the form of a Building Leadership Team, MTSS Team, or Student Support Team) which can be empowered and enabled to address the topic of attendance as well. In most cases, the staff your school needs to address absenteeism already works within your school, they just usually need training and assistance to get started and facilitate decision making.
Ultimately, the team will need to have access to attendance and student information data, be empowered to make decisions regarding the data, and be capable of monitoring implementation of decisions and impacts on student outcomes. When fully operational, an MTSS geared to address absenteeism is a highly effective and efficient framework that helps to sustainably coordinate absenteeism supports without the need for additional staffing.
An additional important feature of addressing absenteeism is identifying the causes for absenteeism for both individual students and groups of students. Uncovering the patterns of “why” students miss school is vital to accurately putting into place supports and interventions that will be effective in improving student attendance. The chart below is adapted from the Kansas State Department of Education and illustrates the common categories of why students miss school: Medical, Barriers, Aversion, and Disengagement.
Using attendance data and knowledge about individual students, a building level team can engage in a problem solving process to determine the potential underlying causes of student attendance issues. Often this includes student/family interviews, which in themselves, can often reduce absenteeism issues by directly labeling the area of concern and getting everyone on the same page. Should there be a need for additional supports, the information gathered during this interview will be instrumental in improving the accuracy of the supports provided and/or designed to address the root causes of the student attendance issues.
Tackle Absenteeism at Your School!
The first step in moving forward with reducing absenteeism in your school is to take stock of what is already happening that can be built upon. Either independently or with your team, use the link below to complete a short self-assessment to see which practices are in place, and which might need to be emphasized to move forward.
Absenteeism Self/Team Assessment
Identifying a problem and having intent to make improvements is rarely enough to support sustainable change (Lyons 2017). Cultivate Education offers partnership opportunities to school districts that are interested in receiving both professional learning and coaching to address the issue of absenteeism. One recent district that received targeted absenteeism support was USD 383 Manhattan-Ogden Public Schools.
Through customized implementation efforts, USD 383 achieved a 14% decrease in the number of chronically absent students between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. Dr. Paula Hough, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning had this to say, “At the start of the 2022-2023 academic year, we reviewed our attendance data from the previous year. It became clear we needed to focus on attendance as a district to improve not only our chronic absenteeism, but also increase student engagement. Through collaboration with Cultivate Education, we have made intentional steps toward understanding the importance of attendance as well as strategies to share with educators, students, and families.”
Reach out today to find out more about how our experienced staff and support framework can help your district in reducing absenteeism.
For Further Reading and Resources
Family Engagement Resources
Citations
- Attendance Works (2023) Monitoring Data Matters Even More: A Review of State Attendance Data Policy and Practice in School Year 2022-23.
- Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2012). The importance of being in school: A report on absenteeism in the nation’s public schools. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools.
- Belfield, C. R., & Levin, H. M. (Eds.). (2007). The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education. Brookings Institution Press.
- Gottfried, M. A. (2010). Evaluating the relationship between student attendance and achievement in urban elementary and middle schools: An instrumental variables approach. American Educational Research Journal, 47(2), 434-465.
- Lyon, A. (2017) Implementation Science and Practice in the Education Sector. Retrieved on August 21, 2022 from https://education.uw.edu/sites/default/files/Implementation%20Science%20Issue%20Brief%20072617.pdf
- Kansas State Department of Education (2021). Chronic Absenteeism Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/CSAS/CSAS%20Home/Graduation%20and%20Schools%20of%20Choice/2021%20Chronic%20Absenteeism%20Fact%20Sheet_11-21.pdf?ver=2021-12-16-104250-700&TSPD_101_R0=0812b43512ab20002caf95140ddf38b4515916dcf9f15df8de581ad81b93b81e836e819346ee317608024e6fe71430008b16c72a8f6a47e89c2162215f9be0b0a6eb0656d8fd35a15b7fc59b650f726e8e7f3ead588b2f2f9af243a7e07b41c9
- Musser, M. (2011). Taking attendance seriously:Hhow school absences undermine student and school performance in New York City. New York: Campaign for Fiscal Equity.
- Sprick, R., Sprick, J. (2019) School Leader’s Guide to Tackling Attendance Challenges. ASCD Press, Alexandria, VA..
- REL Blog (2018) At school, on time, and every day: What research tells us about reducing chronic absenteeism. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/Products/Region/midatlantic/Blog/30190
