What to Do to Support Students Who Are Chronically Absent from School?
Two new reports—from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and from Attendance Works—explore chronic student absenteeism and its consequences for student achievement and graduation. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states must begin reporting data about students’ chronic absence in their accountability reports. Attendance Works even posts an online interactive map from the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution where a person can find chronic absence data about one’s own school district.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as students missing not just days but also weeks of school. Attendance Works defines chronic absenteeism as, “missing 10 percent of school—the equivalent of two days every month or 18 days over a 180-day school year.” While all school districts record students’ absences from school, until recent years most have not tracked each individual student’s accrued absences over the semester or the school year. Now school districts are required to watch and intervene when individual students’ attendance patterns become worrisome.
What is clear is that, while there are a number of ways researchers measure students’ chronic absence from school, the problem is serious: When students miss too much school, they learn less, they fall behind, and they are more likely to drop out without graduating. And students who are poor are more likely to miss school.
Writing for Attendance Works, Hedy Chang, Lauren Bauer, and Vaughan Byrnes explain: “Especially hard hit are children who live in poverty, have chronic health conditions or disabilities, or experience homelessness or frequent moves. When chronic absence reaches high levels in a school or classroom, it can affect every student’s opportunity to learn, because the resulting churn—with students cycling in and out of the classroom—is disruptive for all Continue reading: What to Do to Support Students Who Are Chronically Absent from School? | janresseger
