ATTENDANCE USA Research & Practitioner Briefing
FOCUS REGION
National (USA)
REPORTING PERIOD
Week of Feb. 9, 2026
DATA SOURCES
4 Sources Reviewed
KEY THEME
Data Consistency Crisis
EDITOR'S OVERVIEW
The question of whether students show up to school is deceptively simple — but as this week’s featured research makes plain, how we count, define, and report those absences varies so widely across the United States that meaningful national comparisons remain stubbornly out of reach. As schools grapple with post-pandemic attendance crises, the lack of consistent data infrastructure is no longer a technical inconvenience: it is an equity and accountability emergency.
Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, CEO and Founder of Attendance USA and co-founder of the International Network for School Attendance, captured this urgency directly in a recent podcast: “It’s extremely important to begin to sift through the attendance data that we collect in a way that can categorize these types of absences. We need to find a way to categorize into these four areas [school withdrawal, school avoidance, school refusal, and truancy] so they’re providing the right support.” She further noted that inconsistent reporting is not a new problem — “There’s data that’s available, and it varies by schools, simply because schools are not consistent in reporting this out” — underscoring that funding-tied data tends to be more reliable, while other metrics remain fragmented and often flawed.
This first edition of the Attendance USA Research & Practitioner Briefing leads with the landmark study by Graczyk, Gentle-Genitty, Humm Patnode, and Moulton that lays bare those inconsistencies — and points the way toward a more coherent national data infrastructure. The implications reach every level, from the federal accountability framework to the school secretary entering daily attendance codes.
KEY FINDING
Over 8 million K-12 students (16%) missed 10% or more of the school year in 2017-18 — yet each state is permitted to compile and report attendance data in its own way, making true cross-state comparison unreliable. Post-pandemic data now shows chronic absenteeism has reached 24% nationally, making data consistency more urgent than ever.
NATIONAL SNAPSHOT: ATTENDANCE & ABSENTEEISM INDICATORS
24%
Chronic Absenteeism Rate (National, 2024)
28.5%
Peak Rate Reached in 2021-22 School Year
-1.9%
Change from 2023 to 2024 (Modest Decline)
Chronic absenteeism — defined as missing 10% or more of school days for any reason — surged from a pre-pandemic baseline of approximately 15% in 2018-19 to a peak of 28.5% in 2021-22. While modest declines have been recorded since (25.4% in 2023; 23.5% in 2024), rates remain dramatically elevated above pre-pandemic levels. Critically, these national figures are themselves imperfect: as this week’s featured study documents, collection methods, definitions, and reporting frequencies differ substantially across states, districts, and school types, limiting the reliability of direct comparisons.
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
FEATURED STUDY
Searching for Consistency in Attendance Data Recording, Reporting, and Utilization in the USA
Authors: Patricia A. Graczyk, Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, Amber Humm Patnode, Sara E. Moulton
Published: Orbis Scholae, Volume 16, Issue 2-3, 2022
Institutions: University of Illinois at Chicago; Butler University; Harvard University; Brigham Young University
This landmark study examines how attendance data are recorded, reported, and used at national, state, and local levels in the United States. Drawing on data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and two representative case-study states — Connecticut and Indiana — the authors reveal deep structural inconsistencies in how attendance information is collected and shared. Each state is permitted to compile data in its own way and report only select metrics to the USDOE, creating significant barriers to cross-state analysis and evidence-based policy. Despite federal guidelines, the study finds that public, private, parochial, and charter schools all report differently, and the frequency of chronic absenteeism data collection varies — with the Office of Civil Rights collecting data only biennially at the federal level, while Connecticut and Indiana collect annually for accountability purposes. The authors surface best practices, including Connecticut’s EdSight interactive data portal, as models for overcoming technology and interoperability barriers. The study calls for a unified national framework that enables schools to categorize, compare, and act on attendance data with fidelity and equity in mind.
Journal DOI: doi.org/10.14712/23363177.2023.6
PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAY
What does this mean for your school or district?
⦁ Attendance codes are not universal: excused, unexcused, suspensions, and medical absences are all counted toward chronic absenteeism — ensure your staff understand the full scope of what is being tracked.
⦁ Districts that invest in real-time, accessible data dashboards (like Connecticut’s EdSight) can detect emerging absenteeism patterns faster and respond with targeted interventions — before a student reaches crisis levels.
⦁ Disaggregate before acting: the study’s four-category framework (school withdrawal, school avoidance, school refusal, truancy) should guide triage — different root causes require different responses.
⦁ Federal funding alignment matters: schools receiving USDOE funding tend to report more consistently. Ensure your district leverages ESSA and Every Student Counts reporting to anchor your data practices.
⦁ Advocate for state-level data infrastructure: practitioner voices matter in pushing for consistent, comparable, publicly accessible attendance data portals at the state level.
Open Access: Available via Butler University Digital Commons
NEWS FROM THE FIELD: STATE & DISTRICT REPORTS
The entries below reflect attendance-related developments across school districts, state agencies, and national organizations during this reporting period.
Notable Developments This Week
NATIONAL
Chronic absenteeism nationally stands at approximately 24% for the 2023-24 school year — down from a pandemic peak of 28.5% but still roughly 60% above the pre-pandemic baseline of 15%. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) reports that only about one-third of students are in districts currently on pace to cut 2022 absenteeism levels in half by 2027. Source: AEI Return to Learn Tracker, January 2026.
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut continues to demonstrate national best practice in attendance data infrastructure through its EdSight interactive portal, which allows real-time chronic absenteeism tracking at the district and school level. During the pandemic, Connecticut went further by tracking CA data monthly — a capability most states lack. Source: Connecticut State Department of Education / Graczyk et al. (2022).
INDIANA
Indiana collects chronic absenteeism data annually for accountability purposes, consistent with state reporting requirements under ESSA. Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, CEO of Attendance USA and Butler University Dean, notes that Indiana’s Warren Metropolitan School District has become a recognized model for comprehensive, community-integrated attendance support, including 30 community partner clinicians and a family resource center. Source: Educator Wellness Podcast, December 2024.
POLICY PULSE
Federal and state policy frameworks continue to shape how attendance data are collected, reported, and acted upon. The findings of this week’s featured study are directly relevant to current policy debates around accountability, data standardization, and school improvement.
Legislative & Regulatory Context
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) established chronic absenteeism — defined as missing 10% or more of school days — as a required School Quality/Student Success (SQSS) indicator in state accountability plans. This federal mandate created the closest thing to a national definition of chronic absenteeism and substantially increased the consistency of federal-level data collection. However, Graczyk et al. (2022) document that while federal metrics have improved cross-state comparability, individual states retain wide latitude to define, record, and report below the SQSS threshold, meaning truancy data and below-threshold absence patterns remain inconsistently tracked.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights collects chronic absenteeism data at the district level on a biennial basis, while many state accountability systems collect annually. This frequency mismatch limits the ability of federal policymakers to detect or respond to emerging absence trends in real time.
WATCH
Proposed revisions to ESSA state plan requirements may expand or alter chronic absenteeism reporting standards. Practitioners and researchers should monitor U.S. Department of Education guidance on SQSS indicator flexibility, and engage state departments of education to advocate for more granular, consistently defined absence codes at the local level.
PROMISING PRACTICES & INTERVENTIONS
The following programs reflect approaches highlighted in this week’s featured research and related field reporting as showing meaningful impact on attendance outcomes.
Program / Initiative
Location
Grade Level(s)
Reported Outcome
Connecticut EdSight Portal
Statewide, CT
K–12
Real-time, monthly CA tracking; identified as national best practice for data transparency by Graczyk et al. (2022)
Warren MSD Community Resource Center
Warren Township, IN
K–12
30+ community partner clinicians embedded; family drop-in center for housing, food, transport, mental health, and tutoring resources
Westwood Regional School District Clinician-Home Visits
Westwood, NJ
K–12
Therapists dispatched to homes of school-avoidant students; individualized return-to-school plans developed collaboratively with families
DATA RESOURCES & TOOLS
The following datasets, dashboards, and instruments are highlighted in connection with this week’s featured research as core resources for attendance researchers and practitioners.
DATASET
EDFacts / NCES Chronic Absenteeism Data, U.S. Department of Education — School-level and LEA-level chronic absenteeism counts for 2018 onward, accessible via the USDOE EDFacts initiative. The 2017-18 redesign shifted CA collection from the Office of Civil Rights (biennial) to EDFacts (more frequent) and standardized the threshold to 10% of school days. Access: nces.ed.gov
DASHBOARD
Connecticut EdSight Interactive Portal — Connecticut’s public-facing data portal providing district-level monthly attendance tracking, chronic absenteeism rates, and demographic disaggregation. Cited as a national model in Graczyk et al. (2022). Access: edsight.ct.gov
DATASET
AEI Return to Learn Tracker — District-level chronic absenteeism data spanning 50 states from 2016-17 to 2024-25, updated regularly. Includes trend analysis, district comparisons, and equity breakdowns. Access: returntolearntracker.net
TOOL
Perception of School Social Bonding (PSSB) Instrument — Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty’s validated, freely available assessment tool measuring gaps in school social bonding that may contribute to absenteeism and truancy. Now being adapted for international comparative research. Access: insa.network or attendanceusa.org
VOICES FROM THE FIELD
There are so many ramifications to school attendance and school absenteeism that I’m glad the entire world is now paying attention to it. But I’m also disappointed that we’re just now doing it after we’ve lost so many children or so many kids on our watch. So this is a time for bold action, but it’s action that begins with caring. It begins with us just showing up and asking: How are you, what happened? How can I help?
— Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, CEO & Founder, Attendance USA | Dean, Founder's College, Butler University
It is extremely important to begin to sift through the attendance data that we collect in a way that can categorize these types of absences. School withdrawal, school avoidance, school refusal — those three are very different than truancy. And we need to provide the right support for each. Pushing more punishment to a child who wants to attend but feels there is something in the school environment impacting their life will not get them back.
— Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, Educator Wellness Podcast, December 2024
UPCOMING EVENTS & DEADLINES
DATE
TYPE
EVENT / DEADLINE
Ongoing
Resource
PSSB Instrument available free of charge via INSA Network — access at insa.network for school social bonding assessment that identifies absenteeism risk factors
Ongoing
Dataset
AEI Return to Learn Tracker updated with 2024-25 state data for 41 states — track your state’s chronic absenteeism progress at returntolearntracker.net
Sept 30, 2026
Conference
International Network for School Attendance (INSA) — watch insa.network for call for abstract. To be hosted in Alicante Spain Sept 26-October 2, 2026 international conference on school attendance research
ABOUT THIS BRIEFING
The Attendance USA Research & Practitioner Briefing is published biweekly to provide educators, researchers, and policymakers with timely, evidence-informed summaries of national attendance and absenteeism trends. Each edition synthesizes peer-reviewed research, state and district reports, policy updates, and practitioner insights from across the United States. Attendance USA was founded by Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, a leading international authority on school attendance, absenteeism, and the SALT theory model.
SUBMIT A RESOURCE OR UPDATE
Do you have research, a promising practice, data release, or event to share? We welcome submissions from practitioners, researchers, and district leaders across the United States.
Submit to: info@attendanceusa.org
www.attendanceusa.org/briefings