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Chronic absenteeism—students missing 10 or more school days in a year—has been rising across the United States. A recent study by Panorama Education showed that absenteeism nearly doubled from 2018-19 to 2023-24. That means more students missing out not just on academic learning but also on opportunities to connect with teachers and peers, impacting their future. During the edLeader Panel “Improving Attendance: Levers Within Your District’s Locus of Control,” district leaders identified key strategies that have helped get students back in the classroom.

Before discussing these strategies, the panelists emphasized that schools need to look at the data behind chronic absenteeism—both “who” and “why.” For example, the study found that it was not spread equally across ethnicities. But more important was data about the social-emotional well-being of students.

In elementary school, concerns about school safety correlated strongly with absenteeism. In middle school, school safety and positive feelings about the school environment had strong correlations. However, in high school, supportive relationships, social awareness, and self-management were the top factors.

Essentially, the older a student is, the more important it is that they feel like they belong in school. As the panelists pointed out, though, younger students may not be able to articulate feelings like that. The issues they present to their families may be interpreted as questions about physical safety. And while the older students are not as focused on physical safety, their concerns could be classified as thinking about their own emotional and mental well-being.

Four Key Strategies

1. Build a Dedicated Team

Instead of monitoring absenteeism being one of many responsibilities, the panelists illustrated the benefits of having personnel who are monitoring the data, communicating with students and families, and working with the rest of the staff to create a welcoming environment.

For example, in the Oxnard School District (CA), they have a three-pronged approach. First, they have attendance technicians at every site who call families and make connections if students haven’t been there for a couple of days. If the student is out for more days or starts reaching the 10% threshold, then an Outreach Specialist will contact the family and talk about what the family needs in order to get the child to school. Finally, school counselors identify students who are or have been chronically absent and work with them to figure out how they can feel more connected at school.

2. Have a Role for Everyone

Even though a school can have a dedicated attendance team, connecting students to the school is the responsibility of everyone from the bus drivers to the principal. In Rhode Island, the statewide Attendance Matters initiative ensures that attendance is included along with long-term goals for academic subjects. In addition, there are support services for schools, including outreach strategies for all.

There is also an attendance dashboard that lets not only staff see the data but also provides the public with aggregated information. Moreover, the department of education uses media to spread stories about how attendance can impact student performance.

3. Use Data to Drive Action

Both the Oxnard and Rhode Island programs use data to drive their plans. As mentioned, Rhode Island has their data dashboard. It’s updated daily with data-quality technicians scrubbing the data and making sure the platform is presenting an accurate picture. Oxnard uses the Panorama platform to track students’ social-emotional states and to identify students who could benefit from intervention. Both use the data to separate students into tiers to determine what interventions are needed.

4. Measure the Impact

Oxnard and Rhode Island are also using their data-collection platforms to measure the impact of their initiatives. One of the important outcomes of having the data to support their work is having good news they can share with their communities.

Finally, involving the communities can be a key to tackling chronic absenteeism. Sometimes, this could be finding out how to get homework to kids in the hospital or convalescing at home. Or, it could be helping a local community center start an after-school program that helps students with homework. But most important is making sure everyone supports the goal of having every student attend school and succeed.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Improving Attendance: Levers Within Your District’s Locus of Control, sponsored by Panorama Education.

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Panorama Education partners with K-12 schools and districts across the country to collect and analyze data about social-emotional learning, school climate, family engagement, and more. With research-backed surveys and a leading technology platform, Panorama helps educators act on data and improve student outcomes. Panorama supports 15 million students in 21,000 schools and 1,500 districts across 50 states.

Article by Stacey Pusey, based on this edLeader Panel