“Chronic absenteeism will affect adverse students, but the rise in chronic absenteeism is an unfortunate trend for all ships to rise,” said Nat Malkus, deputy director of educational policy research at AEI.
The data show that racial and racial differences are extremely large, with 36% of black students, 33% of Hispanic students, 22% of white students and 15% of Asian students absent for a long time. But once income is controlled, the racial difference is not large. In other words, this is not the case with chronic absenteeism rates for black and white students with the same income.
3. Moderate absenteeism is increasing.
Everyone lacks more schools than just students who are often absent. Jacob Kirksey, associate professor of educational policy at Texas Tech, tracked 8 million students in three states (Texas, North Carolina and Virginia) from 2017 to 2023. In 2019, half of the absence rates were below 4% in 2019. By 2023, only one-third of students will still be in time for school. Two-thirds are not.
“Many students who once missed the school are now missing a few days,” said Ethan Hutt, associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It’s just the norm.”
4. Many students say they skip because the school is “boring.”
Researchers are interviewing students and families to see why so many kids skip school.
Kevin Gee, a professor of education at the University of California, Davis, analyzed a survey of elementary, middle and high school students in Rhode Island, Rhode Island from 2016 to 2024. He found that for traditionally common reasons, more and more students reported more students without adequate sleep and illness.
After the pandemic, parents are more likely to let their children go home from school when they are sick, but that doesn’t explain why they are so absent from work or why healthy kids lack so much schooling.
Gee found two significant pandemic differences between Rhode Island students. Unfinished homework is no longer a reason to skip school than before, and more elementary school students say they skip school because it’s “very boring.”
Researchers at the workshop debated how to get bored with the school. For students who may span attention, some believe that school curriculum needs to be more attractive. But others disagree. “I think schools are boring,” said Liz Cohen, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Educational Policy. “We need to adjust the expectations that schools should be as exciting as ‘explorer ‘dora’.”
5. Mental health problems lead to absences.
Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, also analyzed the survey and noted the “strong connection” between mental health struggles and chronic absenteeism. It is unclear whether the increase in mental illness was triggered or exacerbated by the pandemic or whether it reflects the anxiety and depression that began before the pandemic.
He is interviewing families and teenagers to see why they are absent, and he says he sees high levels of “disengagement” and mental illness. He said parents are often very concerned about their children’s mental health and well-being.
“It’s really difficult to read the transcripts of these long-absent parents and children,” Polikov said. “Many of these children do have serious trauma. Many of the missing schools have very reasonable reasons. It’s really long-term disengagement. The school has poor service.”
6. Appearance has become optional.
Some researchers believe that the culture about the importance of face-to-face has undergone a profound shift. Seth Gershenson, an economist and associate professor of public affairs at American universities, suggested that in-person schools may seem optional for students, just like adults going to the office.
“Whether it’s meeting with a doctor, whether it’s meeting with a doctor, whether it’s meeting with a doctor, it’s changed,” Gershenson said. “The reason we’re going to be absent now because it won’t lead to our absence in the past.”
Meanwhile, technology makes it easier for students to skip schools and make up for work. They can download assignments in Google classrooms or another app and schedule video conferences with classmates and even teachers to learn what they missed.
“It would be easier to not be absent in school and make up for it,” said USC Polikoff. In his interview, 39 of 40 families said it was “easy” to make up for the absence. “Everyone like this can be online and convenient. And, I have no doubt, doing this (which is kind-hearted) makes it easier for people to be absent.”
Number returns. Gershenson calculated that 10 days of school started to lose the equivalent of one month of learning value before the pandemic. Now, the learning loss from this absence is reduced by about 10%. Instead of losing a month’s start time, it’s like losing 90% of a month. Gershenson said that is still important enough.
The students did not feel the worst consequence: failure. Indeed, even if absences rise, school grades and graduation rates are rising. Many blame grade-level inflation and work to avoid the high school dropout epidemic.
7. Absenteeism today may mean tomorrow’s labor problem.
Academic harm may not be the biggest result of today’s rising chronic absenteeism. In fact, researchers calculated that returning to the pandemic levels of chronic absenteeism would eliminate only 7.5% of the country’s pandemic learning losses. There are other deeper reasons (little understand) why students fall behind.
More importantly, the researchers say that regular school experience can not only improve academic performance. It also creates good habits for the future. “Employers value regular attendance,” Gersonsen said, saying employers he has talked about have reported that it is difficult to find reliable workers.
“The test scores here are more than just test scores,” Gershenson said. “It’s a valuable personality trait. It’s part of the habits that formed early in the school. We’ve certainly lost some. Hopefully we can bring it back.”
Next week, I will write a follow-up column on how some schools can address absentee puzzles (at least with some students) and why the old pre-pandemic script reduces absences no longer works.
