New Research Shows What Schools Are Doing to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism
America's schools have made progress reducing chronic absenteeism since the pandemic. But the problem continues.
Across 44 states and the District of Columbia, the percentage of students missing at least 10 percent of school days fell from a 28 percent peak in 2021-22 to about 23 percent in 2024–25, according to Nat Malkus of the American Enterprise Institute. That still means more than one in five students are chronically absent.
He also reports that 21 states releasing attendance data for the 2025–26 school year show improvement in combating the problem. In 16 of those states, the pace of improvement accelerated compared with the previous year.
The challenge now is less about recognizing the problem than figuring out how schools can solve it, sustain it, and accelerate that progress.
Two new October 2026 reports offer useful guidance on how to do this. They suggest that schools have more tools to improve attendance than they realize. The harder task is choosing the right approaches and putting them into practice.
The first report, Chronic Absenteeism Is a Hard but Addressable Problem, by Robert Balfanz and Vaughan Byrnes of Johns Hopkins University, examines two nationally representative surveys of school principals conducted during the 2024–25 school year.
It shows that schools use many approaches, including family outreach, mental health supports, and efforts to strengthen relationships between students and teachers. But principals report considerable differences in how well these approaches work.
Schools using four or more strategies that principals considered effective were substantially more likely to report significant attendance improvements than schools with one or no effective strategies.
School attendance teams also matter. Principals who considered their teams effective were more than three times as likely to report good progress reducing absenteeism than principals without effective teams.
One finding is especially revealing. Principals frequently cited family and student circumstances as reasons for absences. But surveys, interviews, and focus groups asking students and families why they miss school were the least-used strategies examined. This suggests that schools may be trying to solve attendance problems without first understanding their causes.
These findings need an important qualification. Because they reflect principals' assessments, they identify associations, not proof that particular interventions improved attendance. But they’re still useful insights into what school leaders believe is working.
The second report, the October 2026 Attendance Playbook, from FutureEd at Georgetown University and Attendance Works, approaches the issue differently.
Drawing on a review of more than 150 studies, the updated Playbook presents more than 30 evidence-based attendance strategies, from family communication and stronger student-teacher relationships to transportation assistance, mentoring, health services, and intensive support for students facing serious difficulties.
It organizes these approaches into three levels. They are prevention for all students, targeted assistance for those at risk, and intensive intervention for students with more serious attendance problems.
The distinction between the reports matters. The Johns Hopkins study describes what principals are experiencing in their schools. The Playbook examines the research behind particular interventions.
They complement each other and point to a practical conclusion. Improving attendance requires diagnosing problems, selecting appropriate responses, and having the capacity to carry them out.
K-12 leaders don’t need to do this work alone. The Attendance Solutions Network offers a free peer-learning community where educators exchange strategies and learn from districts making progress. It now includes over 200 school districts across 43 states, representing more than 11,000 schools and 7.2 million students.
Research and available tools point to five priorities for K-12 leaders.
1. Diagnose before prescribing. Attendance data can identify which students are missing school and how frequently. But numbers alone can’t explain why. Districts should ask students and families directly about obstacles they face. States can help by providing timely data and practical diagnostic tools.
2. Make attendance teams effective. School-based teams need more than a list of chronically absent students. They need staff time, training, authority to coordinate support, and regular opportunities to review progress. District leaders should ensure attendance improvement is a sustained responsibility, not another assignment added to a principal's or teacher's workload.
3. Make school connectedness part of the solution. Students are more likely to attend schools where they feel known, valued, and engaged. Principals in the Johns Hopkins study rated efforts to strengthen relationships among students and teachers particularly highly.
4. Match interventions to student needs. A universal attendance campaign may help some students but do little for others. Schools should combine preventive strategies with targeted, intensive support. A student struggling with transportation needs a different response from one experiencing anxiety or caring for younger siblings. Regularly assess whether interventions are being implemented well and whether they are improving attendance.
5. Build partnerships and learn from others. Schools alone can’t solve all attendance barriers. Transportation providers, health organizations, housing agencies, and community groups can help. K-12 leaders should encourage these partnerships and support networks that let districts share successful practices they can apply to local circumstances.
Chronic absenteeism matters because students who miss school also miss opportunities to acquire knowledge, develop skills, build relationships, and discover interests that can shape their futures. So reducing absenteeism is part of a larger civic commitment to expanding opportunity for students, especially those facing the greatest barriers.
The new research offers neither a quick fix nor a single proven formula. It offers something more useful. That’s a clearer understanding of why improvement is difficult and what schools can do about it. The task now is to put that knowledge to work.
_________________________________________
Bruno V. Manno is a senior advisor at the Progressive Policy Institute and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Policy. You can reach him on LinkedIn.