Chronic absenteeism, when a student is absent for 10 percent or more of the academic year, has deeply concerned educators for some time. While there were uncomfortable levels of chronic absenteeism pre-pandemic, COVID allowed those numbers to skyrocket. They haven’t come down. Nationally, 24 percent of students were chronically absent in 2024. In Minnesota, 25 percent of students were chronically absent in 2023 (the year with the most recent data).
When one in four students are considered chronically absent, it’s cause for significant worry. Students who aren’t showing up for class regularly can disrupt the classroom flow and hijack their classmates’ time when they do return and need to be caught up on information, leading to a spillover effect where classmates of chronically absent students are more likely to become chronically absent themselves. Minority, urban, and low-income students are also more likely to be chronically absent than other types of students.
While there is no singular data point that clearly shows the cause of increased chronic absenteeism, it is clear that perceptions of the importance of school shifted post-COVID. Students had spent a year or more away from a traditional classroom, leaving parents to conclude that perhaps one more week or so wouldn’t hurt. A recent RAND study showed that one in four students don’t think that being chronically absent is a problem. School leaders around the country have shifted to community-based, relational communication efforts in the attempt to connect with parents and convince them to bring their child back to the classroom.
Some districts purchase specialized technology to help them connect with parents. While a teacher’s phone call has always been a helpful tool in a school’s arsenal, the levels of chronic absenteeism in some districts are so high that a teacher could easily spend an hour or more per day calling the families of absent students. Automatic technology that sends a text to parents regarding their child’s attendance can be a huge boon for a district that can afford it.
One company that provides this type of technology, SchoolStatus, recently published a paper detailing successful chronic absenteeism interventions using their expansive internal collection of data. The report “examined four years of its own attendance intervention data across hundreds of school districts and “analyzed 3.3 million text messages across 15 states, representing 88,000 students and 22,000 educators”.
The report found that early interventions before a student is chronically absent worked very well, with 51 percent of students whose families received one letter changing their attendance behavior so that no second letter was necessary. Researchers posited that many families don’t understand how quickly absences rack up, but are very responsive to checks from the school administration. Families also respond well to early interventions in August or September, tending to drop off in the later months like January. Even if districts don’t purchase attendance technology, they can prioritize early intervention.
Additionally, parents are far more likely to read texts than to answer phone calls. They’re also likely to respond to texts, with 73 percent of parents responding to the district within 11 minutes. Districts that utilize absentee technology can also text missing students directly, who tend to react well to personalized texts. For districts that are struggling to keep phone lines staffed, this is great news: the easiest method for teachers, texting, is also the most effective outreach method.
Digital technology can be a great tool in an educator’s arsenal, but it won’t fix chronic absenteeism on its own. Communities will have to be convinced of the efficacy and importance of time in the classroom before we see attendance rates reach acceptable levels.
