Supporting Chronically Absent Students Resource Center
Chronic absenteeism rates have doubled since before the pandemic, leading to a cascade of consequences that impact student success, employee morale, and district budgets. Research shows that three emerging root causes for chronic absenteeism have largely gone unaddressed: more parents today undervalue in-person attendance, students have lost the motivation to attend school since the pandemic, and teachers are unsure of their role in combatting absenteeism at large. Despite chronic absenteeism being a decades-old issue in public education, superintendents are still searching for sustainable answers.
To address these three problems and support chronically absent students in returning to school, districts must meet three conditions: parents know why and when to bring their students to school, students can and want to come to school, and teachers understand and embrace their influence over student attendance.
Click through each condition below to explore EAB’s suite of tools and best practices for achieving them.
Three essential conditions to reduce chronic absenteeism at scale
Condition 1: Parents know why and when to bring their students to school
Practice #1: Text parent options for support before the 5-day absence letter goes home
Traditional 5-day or 10-day absence letters often include punitive, formal language that pushes parents farther away. Districts should buffer these state-mandated letters by creating an opportunity for empathy and action before the letters go out—for example, through a short, automated text message that offers options for parent support based on students’ most common reasons for chronic absence.
Practice #2: Nudge parents with an attendance policy checklist that embeds the cost of absence
Since the pandemic, more parents are uncertain of whether to send their children to school if they’re showing mild symptoms. Help make parents’ attendance decisions as straightforward and clear as possible with an attendance policy “nudge.” These visually appealing, simple-to-understand checklists can be shared with parents once a month in a newsletter or other communication. Each nudge has a different cost of absence embedded into its messaging to help build a repeated, consistent district narrative about the costs of missing too much school.
This resource requires EAB partnership access to view.
Access the resource center
Learn how you can get access to this resource as well as hands-on support from our experts through District Leadership Forum.
Learn More