Chronic Absenteeism Rates at Schools Still Way Above Pre-COVID Levels

As high school seniors across the country line up to receive their diplomas this month, public school leaders look ahead to the continued fight against chronic absenteeism so students can graduate on time. The attendance problem reached a crisis level—a national average of about 31 percent in the 2021–2022 academic year—when students in most states were expected to return to in-person learning after the COVID pandemic. Chronic absenteeism, at about 15 percent in 2019, is defined as missing 10 percent or more of instruction time. In lieu of updated figures from the U.S. Department of Education after 2022, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) public policy research center published a report earlier this year noting 2023 figures based on data from states and individual school districts. According to that organization, which gathered information from 38 states and Washington, DC, the chronic absenteeism rate last year averaged about 26 percent....