Introduction
The coronavirus pandemic has brought about a shift in the education landscape. Chronic absenteeism, or missing 10% or more of school for any reason, spiked to more than one in four students following the pandemic. Rates remain high in every state in the country, making this one of the greatest challenges affecting student well-being and academic success today.
If we do not tackle these high levels of chronic absenteeism now, pandemic recovery will be slow, achievement gaps will widen, teaching will become more challenging and student and community outcomes will suffer.
With this in mind, we’re calling on everyone to embrace a bold yet achievable goal: cut chronic absenteeism rates from pandemic highs in half over the next five years. This ambitious target is not only within reach, but is also crucial for improving educational outcomes, ensuring equity and re-engaging students and their families in school and making learning fun once more.
State leaders (governors, chief state school officers. legislators and other agency executives) are uniquely positioned to take action to reverse the attendance crisis. They can ensure everyone is aware of the dire nature of their attendance challenge and mobilize resources so everyone has the tools and support they need to take action. States can offer guidance and provide technical assistance and peer learning opportunities to build the capacity of districts and schools, along with community partners, to adopt effective strategies for improving attendance. Keep in mind that states play a role in ensuring equitable access to learning for all students and families. What supports equitable access can vary depending on the strengths, needs and assets of a particular community or of different groups.
View the list of states that have committed to the challenge!
A roadmap for every state
The 50% challenge calls on state leaders to develop concrete, strategic and long-term plans. Every state will need to create its own attendance and engagement road map based on a deep understanding of the root causes driving chronic absence in its districts and schools. The road map should address local realities and challenges and leverage available assets.
Our extensive experience working with states and districts shows that turning around chronic absenteeism requires commitment, long-term planning and follow through. We know this can be done: Examples include Connecticut's positive, systemic approach to improving attendance, and Rhode Island's state wide strategy.
We offer the following steps to help each state craft its unique path to cutting chronic absence by 50% over the next five years.
Click on the titles in the Explore The 50% Challenge box below to get started. (Steps 4, 5, and 6 are under development.)
The development of this toolkit was made possible by the generous financial support of our individual donors, the Heising Simons Foundation and Overdeck Family Foundation.
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