Parent engagement is the key to tackling chronic absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism in schools is a critical issue, affecting the academic achievement of both the absent students themselves as well as their classmates. An alarming eight million more students were chronically absent in 2022 compared to 2019. This trend is causing widespread concern, with 92 percent of superintendents reporting moderate to major worries about this issue.

The underlying causes behind this rise in absenteeism are numerous. Many risk factors lead to chronic absenteeism, ranging from physical and mental health problems to a lack of transportation. But across all these risk factors, research has identified a critical – yet often overlooked – factor: parental attitudes.

Parental attitudes toward school attendance have evolved dramatically in the past few years. Today’s post-pandemic parents doubt the value of consistent, in-person attendance, and many have a lower threshold for letting their children skip school than previously. These parent misconceptions came up repeatedly in our work with district leaders, with 86 percent of leaders agreeing that parents value attendance less and less, regardless of their student’s grade level. Since many students still achieve academically, their parents believe that continued absences will not negatively impact their overall education despite the proven harms of chronic absenteeism.

How can schools proactively engage with parents to address and mitigate absenteeism?

1. “How Can We Help” Self-Service Messages

Initial communication between schools and parents about absenteeism is often a state-mandated letter, warning parents of potential legal repercussions. However, this approach leaves parents with feelings of fear, denial, or confusion, further exacerbating the issue.

From our interviews with leaders, we found several innovative districts testing out text messages as a proactive communication tool. This practice is proven to be effective across a wide range of other challenges, like supporting parents with summer literacy. By implementing a similar strategy for attendance, schools can preemptively reach out to parents on the third day of an unexcused absence with supportive messages and practical options to address potential barriers. Further, this approach transforms the parent relationship from prosecution to partnership. Texts offer a more direct but less intimidating channel of communication, providing parents with tangible support options.

2. Attendance Checklist “Nudges”

Our research found that parents have always struggled to determine which symptoms warrant keeping their kids home from school – even before the pandemic. Now, however, parents are even more unsure about when to send their sneezing child to school and when to keep them at home. Any sickness, like the common cold, results in a tall peak in absenteeism.

It’s vital to establish clear and simple attendance policies and regularly communicate those policies to parents. Regular, just-in-time communication through a variety of channels, including text messages and visual aids in newsletters and classrooms, can help demystify attendance policies. Additionally, ease parent anxiety by partnering with local health professionals to create an attendance checklist. The checklist should include a list of symptoms that are and aren’t okay for a student to display in class. For example, a runny nose or a small cough is safe, but a high temperature or doctor’s instructions to isolate means the student should stay at home.

Mitigating chronic absenteeism requires a nuanced understanding of parental perspectives and proactive, empathetic engagement strategies. Text messaging, coupled with clear and consistent policy communication, offers a promising avenue for districts to interact with parents and build a community of trust and collaboration, furthering the development of students.

We developed our Chronic Absenteeism Collaborative to help superintendents hardwire effective parent communications and reduce chronic absenteeism. For more information please visit get.eab.com/chronicabsenteeism, or if you are already a District Leadership Forum partner, you can register for our upcoming cohort.