New Research Challenges Traditional Approaches to Chronic Absenteeism, Offers Strategic Framework for Education Leaders
Drawing on over 500 sources and insights from national experts, this report identifies five critical findings for addressing the post-pandemic attendance crisis affecting nearly 9 million students nationwide.
The Consortium of Florida Education Foundations (Consortium) in partnership with the Helios Education Foundation released a comprehensive report examining evidence-based interventions to address chronic absenteeism in America’s schools. The report, Evidence-Based Interventions to Address Chronic Absenteeism: Strategic Insights for Education Leaders, challenges many traditional approaches and provides strategic guidance for district leaders, policymakers, and education foundations working to reverse troubling post-pandemic attendance trends.
Chronic absenteeism has reached crisis proportions nationwide. While roughly 13-15% of students (approximately 6 million children) were chronically absent before the COVID-19 pandemic, rates nearly doubled to 30% during the 2021-2022 school year. Though rates have since declined to approximately 19%, this still represents over 9 million K-12 students missing 10% or more of school days annually, a level that significantly impacts academic achievement and long-term life outcomes.
The report, authored by Dr. Edward Dieterle and Dr. Marianne Bakia, draws on an extensive investigation of more than 500 published sources, interviews with nationally recognized scholars and practitioners, and insights from participation in national convenings hosted by the American Enterprise Institute.
Five Critical Findings
The research reveals five key findings that fundamentally challenge conventional thinking about attendance interventions:
1. Understanding the Evidence Base Is Necessary but Not Sufficient. While the research literature on chronic absenteeism is extensive and provides critical insights, knowing what the research says does not automatically translate into successful implementation. Districts must master both the evidence base and implementation realities.
2. Chronic Absenteeism Represents a Symptom of Systemic Challenges. Attendance patterns reflect complex interactions among economic instability, health disparities, housing insecurity, and community violence. Narrowly focused, school-centric interventions have limited effectiveness; schools cannot solve chronic absenteeism independently.
3. Post-Pandemic Shifts Require Innovative, Systemic Approaches. The pandemic transformed how families view school attendance. Districts must acknowledge these shifts rather than attempting to restore previous norms; instead, they should develop new value propositions for in-person learning through engaging experiences and meaningful relationships.
4. Authentic Community Voice and Partnership Prove Essential for Effectiveness. Interventions developed with authentic community participation achieve significantly better outcomes than those imposed without meaningful input. True partnership requires shared decision-making power and a willingness to be influenced by community wisdom.
5. Implementation Quality Through Continuous Improvement Trumps Program Selection on Its Own. Implementation quality predicts outcomes more strongly than specific program models. Districts achieving sustained improvements invest in implementation infrastructure, maintain interventions through initial challenges, and treat interventions as hypotheses to be tested through continuous improvement cycles.
“Chronic absenteeism is not an isolated issue; it is a barometer for broader systemic health within our communities,” said report co-authors Drs. Dieterle and Bakia. “Our analysis challenges education leaders to look beyond traditional, school-centric interventions and acknowledge that the post-pandemic landscape has altered how families view school attendance.”
“This report, commissioned by the Consortium with support from the Helios Education Foundation, provides education leaders with a clear strategic framework for addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing schools today,” said Amity Schuyler, President and CEO of the Consortium. “Rather than prescribing specific programs, we’re supporting our members to help districts build the capacity to understand their local contexts and develop solutions that work for their communities.”
Strategic Implications
The evidence is clear: addressing chronic absenteeism requires organizational change, not just program adoption. The report identifies five strategic implications for investment and support:
- Building implementation infrastructure rather than program proliferation
- Developing authentic community engagement capacity, particularly with populations disproportionately affected by absenteeism
- Fostering cross-sector collaboration to address root causes and underlying conditions beyond school walls, including partnerships with health services and housing agencies
- Establishing continuous improvement systems that adapt interventions to local contexts
- Supporting innovation in schools’ value proposition for in-person attendance in a post-pandemic environment
Districts achieving sustained improvements share these common characteristics, moving away from simply “buying a program” toward creating the organizational capacity for continuous improvement.
For more information about this project or the newly published report contact Consortium’s President and CEO, Amity Schuyler.
