It might be the last day of National Attendance Awareness Month, but chronic absenteeism is in the spotlight every month.
For the past three years, I have set up daily alerts for what is happening with our customers. Attendance is one of them. After a month of reading 80 chronic absenteeism headlines, one thing is clear: there is no single attendance problem.
That may be the most important takeaway from Attendance Awareness Month.
Many barriers, one number
Some students are missing school because of health. Some because of housing instability. Some because of disengagement. Some because of family responsibilities. Some because they do not have a reliable way to get there.
Districts often respond with one category of solution: attendance campaigns, reminders, incentives, software, outreach. Don’t get me wrong. Those tools can help. But they are downstream.
A better question
The more useful question is not simply, “Why are students absent?”
It is, “Which barriers are driving absence for which students?”
That sounds like a small distinction. It is not. Once the barrier is visible, the intervention changes.
A student struggling with anxiety needs something different from a student caring for a sibling. A student without stable housing needs something different from a student who misses the bus. A student without a ride does not need a better reminder to come to school. They need transportation.
What I have appreciated most about this month’s reporting is that more districts, researchers and communities appear to be moving toward that kind of diagnosis. That is where the real work starts.
Separate the barriers
Chronic absenteeism is not one problem. It is many different barriers showing up in the same number. Until we separate them, we will keep treating symptoms while wondering why the number does not move fast enough.
If schools got better at removing one barrier before it became an absence, which would make the biggest difference where you are?
We’ll keep the conversation going. See how Go Together helps districts build a multimodal SchoolPool program, explore solutions for school districts, or request a demo.
Further reading:
- NC Newsline: Three North Carolina schools made big gains on chronic absenteeism. Here’s what they’re doing.
- The Baltimore Banner: Fewer Maryland students are missing school after post-pandemic absenteeism spike
- District Administration: How an L.A. charter school has all but eliminated chronic absenteeism among homeless students
- GreenLight Fund: GreenLight Fund invests $1M to combat chronic absenteeism in Oakland
#AttendanceAwarenessMonth #ChronicAbsenteeism #StudentTransportation #K12Education #StudentAttendance
