OHIO — Ohio, along with more than a dozen other states, have committed to reducing chronic absenteeism by 50% over five years, impacting millions of students.

What You Need To Know

  • The pandemic exacerbated transportation barriers, community violence and a low sense of belonging which leads to chronic absenteeism
  • Leaders with Attendance Works, AEI and Ed Trust, see chronic absenteeism as a crisis that needs all hands on deck to deal with it
  • Chronically absent students miss 10% or 18 days or more of the school year

Carl Felton, III, a policy analyst for an Ed Trust P-12 Team, said addressing the problem of chronic absenteeism has not been easy.

“The pandemic exacerbated many of the root causes that families and students were already experiencing that led to chronic absenteeism, which had already existed prior to the pandemic," he said.

That said, he noted that students felt disconnected, which produced a greater need for support and families to be engaged to deal with the issues at hand.

Ultimately, if districts across the nation don’t tackle the problem head on, “Those are the students who are at a higher risk of dropping out before high school graduation. Those are the students who are known to experience adverse health outcomes throughout their life,” Felton said. Plus, they’re also more likely to experience adult poverty," he said.

Felton highlighted the work in Ohio that’s already being done like the Stay in the Game initiative, which is an attendance network campaign, plus the use of wraparound services and other engagement practices in place to address root causes of chronic absenteeism.

While Ohio and other states are well on their way to making inroads, Felton noted there’s more work to do.