Understanding Chronic Absence
Causes and Challenges
Students miss school for many different reasons. Every student and school community’s circumstances are different and can be complex. We should not assume that chronically absent students and their guardians do not care about wanting to be successful in school.
According to Robert Balfanz at the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Everyone Graduates, “Most students want to be in school and their parents do care. Many students who are missing school have various issues that can range from having to care for younger siblings, working to help provide for their families, anxiety and mental health issues, and many more reasons.”
The pandemic disrupted education in unprecedented ways, including the norm of attending school every day, creating a culture shift that made school seem optional. Recent data trends show that student attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The norm for regular daily attendance has shifted in a variety of ways. School administrators are reporting that many parents have a lower threshold for keeping their children home from school for illness and health concerns. In addition, schools share that several students are staying home due to anxiety. Further, students who were in kindergarten and the early elementary grades during the pandemic did not have the opportunity to establish a norm of going to school regularly.
Challenges to attending school may include:
- Problems with access to basic necessities, such as a lack of consistent transportation, stable housing, food, or healthcare.
- Community-specific circumstances, such as neighborhood violence or not having a safe route to get to school, may also be at play.
- Family circumstances, illness, chronic health or mental health issues, or trauma.
- Students may be disengaged while in school. They may not have developed a sense of belonging and may not have any meaningful or caring relationships with adults in their school. In addition, students could be facing issues with bullying that make attending school difficult.
- Students may be struggling to learn. Missing instruction and homework can put a student in a cycle of continually being behind, trying to catch up on what they missed, and not being able to access current instruction.
Student Subgroups Most At Risk
Research shows that certain subgroups of students are most at risk for being chronically absent from school.
- Children living in poverty are two to three times more likely to be chronically absent.
- Students from communities of color, as well as those with disabilities, are also disproportionately affected by chronic absence.
- Children classified as economically disadvantaged face the most harm due to chronic absence because their communities are often under-served and lack the resources to make up for the lost opportunity to learn in school.
Root Causes
According to research and analysis from Attendance Works, a national expert on chronic absence and key partner with the Arizona Chronic Absence Task Force, the root causes that contribute to students being chronically absent usually fall into four categories.
Challenges that keep students from getting to school
- 1 - Barriers
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- Chronic and acute illness
- Family responsibilities or home situation
- Trauma
- Community violence
- Poor transportation
- Housing and food insecurity
- Inequitable access to needed services
- System involvement
- Lack of predictable schedules for learning
- Lack of access to tech
- And others!
- 2 - Aversion
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- Struggling academically and/or behaviorally
- Unwelcoming school climate
- Social and peer challenges
- Anxiety
- Biased disciplinary and suspension practices
- Undiagnosed disability and/or disability accommodations
- Parents had negative educational experiences
- And others!
- 3 - Disengagement
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- Lack of challenging, culturally responsive instruction
- Bored
- No meaningful relationships to adults in the school (especially given staff shortages)
- Lack of enrichment opportunities
- Lack of academic and behavioral support
- Failure to earn credits
- Drawn to low-wage job vs. being in high school
- And others!
- 4 - Misconceptions
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- Absences are only a problem if they are unexcused
- Missing 2 days per month doesn’t affect learning
- Lose track and underestimate TOTAL absences
- Sporadic absences aren’t a problem
- Attendance only matters in the older grades
- Suspensions don’t count as absence
- And others!
High levels of chronic absence can point to systemic issues such as negative school climates. Part of the process to achieve positive change involves becoming attuned to various causes that can contribute to chronic absence for students and families in your specific school, district, or charter network. Experts say that searching for the root cause is critical. Every district or school will need to unpack their data and work to understand the root causes so that they can problem-solve the issue correctly.
What do you suspect are the root causes of chronic absence at your school or district?
According to teachers, school leaders, community partners, and parents working directly on chronic absence, the reasons why students across Arizona miss too much school range from simple to complex challenges. For many students who are chronically absent, it is connected to housing, transportation, basic need challenges, or medical/health issues for themselves or other family members. For example:
- A student from the Baboquivari District on the Tohono O’odham Nation shared that he missed a lot of school to care for his mother who was sick. She spoke O'odham and limited English, so he translated for her during the hospital stays.
- Another student shared that transportation was a barrier because their family lived an hour away from school and missing the bus meant missing school.
- A family from Head Start shared how they were struggling with housing insecurity. The family would sleep in their car, having to find a different place to park each night. It made getting to school every day hard.
When digging deep and speaking to families, school leaders across Arizona have shared that mental health, anxiety, and stress on students and families have also contributed to missing school. Leaders have also discovered that some families have shifting beliefs and motivation levels that are more flexible when it comes to the importance of having their child present in school every day.
Resources
- Attendance Works & Johns Hopkins Center for Everyone Graduates series on chronic absence
- Root Causes of Chronic Absence from Attendance Works
- Breaking Barriers to Attendance from Attendance Works