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Governing: Education
Chronic Absenteeism a
Major Problem in U.S. Schools
By Mike Maciag
Desks in classrooms all across the country are routinely empty. It’s
not due to a lack of funding or declining enrollment, but to the fact
that students simply aren’t showing up.
The most recent federal data suggest more than 1 in 7 students are
chronically absent from our public schools. It’s a widespread problem:
At least a dozen schools in nearly every state report more than 20
percent of students are chronically absent.
Chronic absenteeism is a relatively new measure the federal government
and states have started to track. Unlike truancy, it denotes missing
school for any reason, excused or unexcused. But there is no
universally agreed-upon threshold. The national think tank Attendance
Works, which defines chronic absenteeism as missing at least 10 percent
of school days in a given year, views it as an early indicator of more
serious trouble. “Chronic absence is an alert,” says Hedy Chang, the
group’s executive director, “that a kid is at risk, or a school is
struggling and needs more resources.”
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There are big disparities among different regions of the country.
Federal data for the 2015-2016 school year indicate that more than
one-fifth of students were chronically absent in seven states: Alaska,
Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.
Meanwhile, only about a tenth of students in Vermont and North Dakota
were chronically absent.
The wide variation is largely a reflection of demographics. Black,
Hispanic and Native American students are significantly more likely to
miss school. In addition, the U.S. Department of Education has reported
that students with disabilities are 1.5 times more likely to be
chronically absent than others. Counterintuitively, students not
proficient in English are actually less likely to be chronically absent
than more proficient English speakers. A report published in September
by Attendance Works and the Johns Hopkins University School of
Education found that an alarming 30 percent or more of students were
chronically absent from nearly 11,800 schools. It identified high
poverty as a driving factor.
Demographics don’t always predict attendance, though. According to the
report, chronic absenteeism exceeding 20 percent is more common in city
schools than in suburban and rural areas. But in Oregon, an analysis
showed especially high rates in rural areas. In Alabama and
Mississippi, white students are more likely to miss school than black
students.
Missing school sets students back academically. Average reading and
math scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress show a
drop-off for students missing significant amounts of school in
virtually all demographic groups. Research suggests negative
consequences are more severe for poorer students. A 2010 study in
Sociology of Education found that socioeconomically disadvantaged
kindergarten and first-grade children with good attendance improve
their literacy more than those who miss school more often.
A 2015 federal law requires the disclosure of chronic absence in
end-of-year district report cards, and nearly three-quarters of states
have adopted it as an accountability metric. Definitions differ across
states, though, and some leave it up to their districts to define. A
few states, for instance, don’t count a suspension as a missed day of
school. There’s an effort to define chronic absence more consistently.
It’s the differences in reporting that likely explain many of the
discrepancies in state numbers, as some districts may undercount absent
students if state and federal definitions don’t match.
Given the varying reasons why students are absent, there’s no universal
approach to solving the problem. Districts have pursued a range of
targeted interventions, from hiring caseworkers to, in rare instances,
taking parents to court. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District
established a phone bank to check in with families of chronically
absent students. Oregon, a state which consistently records one of the
highest rates of chronic absenteeism, recently hired eight regional
coordinators to address the issue.
State Student Absenteeism Data
Nationally, more than 15 percent of students during the 2015-16 school
year were chronically absent, which the federal government defines as
missing 15 or more days. Student demographics, differences in reporting
methods and numerous other factors influence states’ totals.
Read this and other articles at Governing
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