Mi Aniefuna Senior Research Manager | Official Website
Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days annually, remains a significant issue across the United States. The U.S. Department of Education reported that during the 2021-22 school year, approximately 31 percent of students, equating to 14.7 million children, were chronically absent. This figure saw a slight decline to about 28 percent in the following year.
Research highlights the severe consequences of chronic absenteeism, particularly for young learners. Children missing substantial school time from preschool through second grade are more likely to struggle with reading by third grade and face long-term academic challenges. A study led by Robert Balfanz at Johns Hopkins in 2007 found that chronic absence is a key predictor of high school dropout rates.
Experts emphasize that chronic absenteeism includes all absences, whether excused or unexcused. Many absences among young students are due to health issues like asthma and diabetes or stem from community challenges such as inadequate transportation and unsafe neighborhoods.
Detroit has faced high absentee rates for many years, exacerbated by economic decline and management issues within its school system. According to researchers Sarah Winchell Lenhoff and Jeremy Singer in their book "Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism: Why Schools Can’t Solve It Alone," Detroit's experiences highlight universal aspects of the problem.
Lenhoff and Singer note that Detroit’s efforts over the years included citywide campaigns, home visits, parent contracts, and data-driven support systems. Despite these attempts, Detroit's chronic absenteeism rate remained one of the highest in the country at 66 percent in 2023.
“Since 2012,” Lenhoff writes, “Detroit’s community leaders...have tried citywide messaging campaigns and community pledges; phone calls...and court-run diversion programs.” Yet these efforts had limited long-term success.
“This isn’t a silver-bullet story,” they write. “Instead...it’s about how schools came to be held responsible for a problem largely outside their traditional purview.”
The authors argue that schools alone cannot solve chronic absenteeism without broader systemic changes addressing root causes such as transportation and health care gaps.
In an interview with EdSurge, Lenhoff remarked on Detroit's value as a model not because it solved absenteeism but because it utilized common strategies available nationwide: “We see Detroit as a useful model...because they really drew on...resources and strategies that schools across the country have available to them.”
Jeremy Singer highlighted challenges in identifying reasons behind student absences: “Schools have immediate access to how much school their students are missing, but they don’t know the reasons.”
As education departments face cutbacks amid ongoing fiscal pressures, sustaining positions like attendance agents becomes challenging. However, both Lenhoff and Singer stress that solutions require more than just what schools can provide: "Even if there’s additional money for schools," said Singer, "the solution will never be just what schools do."
The duo underscores economic instability as a primary driver of absenteeism while noting shifts affecting immigrant communities could alter attendance dynamics further.
A positive relationship between families and schools is crucial for improving attendance rates. A climate obstructing family-school communication could exacerbate problems in certain communities.
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