Headline Intelligence

Newark Reaches a Historic Attendance Milestone

Newark Public Schools reported chronic absenteeism at 8.5% for 2025–26, its lowest rate on record and well below New Jersey’s statewide rate of 14.4%.

District leaders pointed to several strategies: individualized intervention plans, a revived attendance department, school-level dashboards, family outreach, a truancy task force, incentives, a city reengagement partnership, and expanded access to the arts. The largest gains were reported among Black students and students with disabilities. Importantly, Newark also acknowledged that a change in New Jersey’s enrollment-counting rules contributed to the decline.

Why it matters: Newark gives attendance leaders two lessons at once. First, meaningful attendance improvement appears to be happening. Second, methodology matters. When attendance numbers improve, leaders should be able to explain not only what changed but also how the number was calculated. Transparency strengthens credibility.

Research Watch

Three Years of Improvement and a Strong Signal About Belonging

SchoolStatus reports that chronic absenteeism among its 142 partner districts has fallen to 20.29%, representing a 6.2% year-over-year decline and a 10.3% decline over two years. The youngest learners showed particularly strong improvement: kindergarten chronic absenteeism declined 18.7% over two years and transitional kindergarten declined 19.7%. Every demographic group tracked showed improvement, although Black students continued to have the highest rate at 25.62%.

Meanwhile, Kingswood Magnet Elementary in Wake County, North Carolina, offers a much more human example. Students are greeted with music, hugs and high-fives. Families receive welcome calls. When students miss school, staff reach out. Its chronic absenteeism rate is 15%, compared with 17.8% district-wide.

We want kids to want to be in school. We need that sense of belonging.

— School social worker, Kingswood Magnet Elementary

The Attendance Science™ lens: What happens when we treat belonging as an attendance intervention rather than an extracurricular nicety? And how might our attendance strategies change if the goal were not simply getting students into the building — but creating conditions that make them want, and be able, to return tomorrow?

Policy Watch

Georgia Considers Linking Attendance to Driving and Extracurriculars

Georgia’s proposed Every Day Counts Act (SB 513) would allow the state to suspend the driver’s licenses or learner’s permits of certain 15- to 17-year-olds classified as chronically unexcused. The legislation would also restrict participation in extracurricular activities, including sports, band and drama, until a family review meeting occurs.

The question Attendance USA™ is watching: If transportation, connection and belonging can influence attendance, what happens when an attendance intervention removes access to transportation and the very activities that may connect a student to school? This is one to watch.

Federal Watch

Could Federal Education Dollars Support More Attendance Solutions?

The proposed All In for Attendance Act would allow districts to use existing federal education funding for strategies including community mentorship, coaching, cross-agency data systems, healthcare, transportation, counseling and professional development addressing the root causes of absenteeism. The legislation has not moved since its June introduction, but it is worth watching as Congress returns from its August recess.

The significance is in the framing: attendance improvement would extend beyond school-based interventions toward the broader conditions that influence whether students can consistently attend.

Attendance + Technology

AI Is Moving Into Attendance Documentation

SchoolStatus has introduced Refine Notes, an AI-assisted feature designed to help school staff draft attendance and truancy documentation the company describes as “court-ready.” Its broader rollout also includes hourly attendance tracking, a redesigned parent portal, and an at-risk dashboard combining attendance, grades and behavior.

Attendance USA’s caution for districts: AI-generated language that could become part of a truancy or court record deserves serious review. Before implementation, districts should consider FERPA, state student-data privacy requirements, human review, accuracy, bias, documentation practices and accountability for the final record. Efficiency cannot replace professional judgment.

New Attendance Players

A Better Chicago Puts $10 Million Behind Attendance

A Better Chicago has named the first four grantees in its five-year, $10 million Every Day Counts initiative. The funded organizations are approaching attendance through community relationships and belonging — another indication that chronic absenteeism is increasingly being treated as a community challenge rather than solely a school problem. Attendance USA™ will be watching this cohort as the work develops.

Where Attention Should Be Right Now

September is Attendance Awareness Month. This is an opportunity to do more than launch attendance campaigns. Use this month to examine the actual experience of showing up:

• Do students feel known?
• Do families experience attendance outreach as support or surveillance?
• Are schools measuring belonging alongside absence?
• Are interventions addressing the conditions influencing attendance — or simply responding after students have already missed school?

For School Districts & Organizations

This week’s intelligence suggests three immediate actions: build belonging into daily routines rather than reserving relationship-building for crisis intervention; be transparent about methodology when reporting improved attendance numbers; and thoroughly review any AI-generated attendance or truancy documentation before it enters a student record. District leaders should also keep the All In for Attendance Act on their federal policy radar.

For Parents & Families

Ask your child’s school how chronic absence is calculated and whether excused absences count toward the total.

Families should also ask what happens before an attendance warning arrives. Does the school have a welcome or belonging strategy? Who reaches out when a student begins missing school? What supports are available when transportation, health, housing or other barriers interfere with attendance?

And Georgia families should watch SB 513 closely because, if enacted, attendance records could affect teenagers’ driving privileges and extracurricular participation.

On Our Radar

September and October will bring two notable additions to the growing field of Attendance Science™, including Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty’s Schools Spared, Children Punished: Outsourcing Education, Attendance Science, and the Gateway to Equity and Attendance Science: Theory, Measurement, and Practice. More to come from Attendance USA™ as these publications enter the field.

From Attendance USA™

This week gives us reason for optimism. Newark is reporting historic progress. A large national dataset shows attendance improving. A North Carolina elementary school is demonstrating what belonging can look like in everyday practice.

But the policy environment is also becoming more complicated. As some communities invest in relationships, mentorship, transportation and family support, others are considering stronger consequences for students who do not attend. Attendance Science™ requires us to study both.

Because improving attendance isn’t simply about finding something that makes the number move. It’s about understanding why the number moved, who benefited, whether improvement can be sustained, and what students and families experienced along the way. That’s the intelligence behind the attendance.