Education groups reveal new report on chronic absenteeism

A new Arkansas education report shows that 50 public schools have chronic absenteeism rates of 30% or higher. Another 109 Arkansas schools are experiencing chronic student absence rates of 20-29 percent, according to the analysis, Portraits of Change: Aligning School and Community Resources to Reduce Chronic Absence.

The report data was collected and delivered by Attendance Works, a national initiative dedicated to improving the policy, practice and research around attendance, and the Everyone Graduates Center, which supports the development of tools and models designed to keep all students on the path to graduation.

“Missing too many days of school for any reason puts children at risk academically,” said Hedy N. Chang, executive director of Attendance Works. “It can translate into a child who can’t read by the end of third grade, fails courses in middle school and eventually drops out of high school.”

Some of the leading causes of absenteeism for school-age children includes chronic health problems, unreliable transportation, or housing moves.

Portraits of Change profiles examples of attendance initiatives found throughout the country — including Monitor Elementary in Springdale, which shows how chronic absence can be turned around, even when it reaches high levels in a school or district or among a particular student population. Monitor reduced its chronic absence rate from 19% to 6% in just two years.

A similar study in 2016 by the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (AR-GLR) and Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) found that more than 12% of all Arkansas students in kindergarten through third grade were chronically absent in 2014-2015, meaning they missed 18 or more days of school. Chronic absence is typically defined as missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason, whether excused or unexcused, including school suspensions.

“Chronic absenteeism is widespread in Arkansas, and it has a significant impact on our students’ ability to read by the end of third grade,” said Dr. Ginny Blankenship, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families’ education policy director. “Although chronic absenteeism affects students from all income levels, the problem is even worse for children who grow up in poverty. The good news is that there are many simple, inexpensive things that schools can do that have proven to help keep more kids in school every day, thriving and ready to learn.”

“Over the past year, the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading has partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education and Attendance Works to provide professional development on chronic absence to more than 40 school districts,” said Angela Duran, campaign director of the AR-GLR. “The ADE has included chronic absence as a new accountability indicator in the recently released draft Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state plan. Schools and districts will begin reporting chronic absence rates in the 2018-2019 school year, providing them an early warning indicator about students that may be heading in the wrong direction academically.”

For the full report, click here.