Headline Intelligence

New York City names a liaison in every school

October 31: the deadline for every NYC public school to designate a school avoidance liaison.

Under an August 2026 agreement between New York City Public Schools, The Legal Aid Society, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, every school must designate a school avoidance liaison by October 31 each year. The liaison can be a teacher, administrator, or other pedagogue and receives two hours of annual training on behaviors that can lead to school refusal. Schools must build individualized reintegration plans with families that allow a gradual return, with accommodations and help catching up on missed work. The Department of Education must produce training materials for staff by January 1, 2027, post resources for parents, and report by July 31 on whether each school has named and trained its liaison. The agreement centers on students with social or emotional disabilities, such as severe anxiety or depression, who miss long stretches of school (Chalkbeat New York; Legal Aid Society).

Why it matters

The nation's largest school system is about to create more than 1,000 attendance-specific roles at once. That is a milestone for the field: it recognizes that avoidance is a distinct category of absence, rooted in distress, that calls for a different response than truancy. It also raises the next question every district will face. What preparation does a liaison need to classify an absence accurately, partner with a family, and lead a gradual return? Two hours a year is a starting point. Attendance Science™ offers the rest: clear classification of avoidance, refusal, withdrawal, and truancy, and a practice built on belonging.

New Research This Week

Connection, trust, and learning in Chicago. In Connection, Trust, and Learning, Dr. Elaine M. Allensworth, Meril Antony, William Delgado, and Dr. Marisa de la Torre of the UChicago Consortium on School Research found that about one in three Chicago middle schoolers and one in two high schoolers miss more than 10% of school days. Each absent day carried a similar achievement cost as before the pandemic. Schools serving similar students in similar neighborhoods had very different absence rates, and attendance was higher where students and teachers reported a strong climate: feeling safe and free from bullying, connected to school and peers, challenged by rigorous work, and supported by teacher-parent trust (UChicago Consortium).

Absence as a public health problem. In Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Arielle Symone Clarke, Dr. Kate Dimond Fitzgerald, and Dr. Laura Mufson of Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute argue that school refusal and chronic absenteeism belong in a public health frame. They note that no quantitative U.S. studies have examined how race shapes the course of school refusal, and that teachers may misread distress in students of color as defiance, delaying help. They call for culturally tailored, multi-tier interventions and research that recruits minoritized youth (Frontiers, 2026).

Hispanic students in Monroe County, New York. A follow-up to The Children's Agenda's Report on Chronic Absenteeism in Monroe County shows Hispanic students in the Rochester City School District missed an average of 38.2 days in 2024–25, compared with 13.7 days for Hispanic students in suburban districts. Caregiving, mental health, school climate, transportation, suspensions, and economic hardship were among the reasons cited (WXXI News; full report).

The week's lead study, Kirksey, Gottfried, Ansari and Lansford on how classmates' absences spread, appears in the Research Spotlight above.

Policy Watch

Mississippi: steady progress under a new counting rule. Chronic absenteeism fell to 26.5% in 2025–26 from 27.6% the year before, with East Jasper lowest at 11.2%. A 2026 law caps excused absences at five per semester, with exemptions for medical reasons and most school activities, and next year the state moves to the federal standard of counting a student present with at least half the day attended. "The MDE's goal is to see this rate fall even more and support families in removing barriers that result in a student missing school," said State Superintendent Lance Evans (Meridian Star).

Maryland: monthly tracking replaces the year-end wait. Nearly 23% of Maryland students were chronically absent in 2025–26, down from nearly 32% in 2021–22, against a state goal of 15%. District rates in 2024–25 ranged from 16.7% in Frederick County to 46.4% in Baltimore City. The state now reviews chronic absenteeism monthly, and officials are focusing on the reasons students miss school, including illness, mental health, and family barriers. "We are looking at it monthly," said Assistant State Superintendent Mary Gable (WJLA).

Oregon: a third year of gains, and a law rewrite ahead. Oregon reported a third straight year of improved attendance, with 2,655 more students attending regularly than the year before (KCBY). Under House Bill 4154, the state now reports attendance quarterly. Looking to 2027, the Oregon Department of Education has recommended repealing 11 compulsory attendance statutes and replacing them with a framework that treats attendance data "as a continuous signal for improvement," including 17 present and absent codes in place of the excused and unexcused labels (News From The States).

No new state attendance legislation was signed in the monitoring window.

Since School Reopened

• Statewide reports this fall (Ohio, Mississippi, Maryland, Oregon) show continued declines, with every state still above its pre-pandemic rate.

• States are shortening the feedback loop: Maryland now reviews data monthly and Oregon reports quarterly.

• Definitions are moving: Mississippi caps excused absences and adopts the half-day standard next year, while Oregon proposes replacing excused and unexcused labels entirely.

• Practitioner voice: Casey Martin, M.Ed., of Groveport Madison Middle School Central, featured by Chris Miller of AttendanceK12, describes a K-12 regulation space adapted from Ohio State's SMART Lab. What looked like behavior referrals was often unmet social-emotional need, and the real result was connection. It is a fitting companion to this week's research on climate and trust.

Federal Watch

What every school day costs. The U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of School System Finances puts national current spending at $17,619 per pupil in fiscal year 2024, up 6.6% from $16,526, not adjusted for inflation. Schools took in $994.9 billion and spent $983.7 billion. States provided 45.2% of revenue and local sources 43.2%, while federal revenue fell 4.4% to $115.1 billion, or 11.6% of the total. Instruction accounted for 58.8% of current spending. Per-pupil spending ranged from $31,918 in New York to $11,060 in Idaho.

Why it matters: At roughly 180 school days, $17,619 works out to about $98 of public investment in each student, each day (an Attendance USA™ estimate). A chronically absent student, missing 18 or more days, leaves about $1,760 of that investment unused in a single year. Attendance is how a community collects on what it has already paid for.

No new federal attendance regulation or grant competition was announced in the window. Attendance researchers preparing for the December IES funding round can revisit the IES FY2027 topics.

Policy Conversation: The Hunt Institute — Beyond Attendance

On October 15, Dr. Gentle-Genitty joined The Hunt Institute for Beyond Attendance, a national policy conversation on chronic absenteeism, engagement, and persistence. Founded in 2001 by former North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt Jr., The Hunt Institute is a nonpartisan organization that connects governors, legislators, and state education leaders with research and practice to shape education policy across the country. Its webinar series brings that work to policymakers and practitioners nationwide.

Attendance is a tally. Absenteeism is the story behind the tally. Dr. Gentle-Genitty opened with a long view: we have counted attendance since Boston Latin opened in 1635, and nearly four centuries later, with record spending per pupil, the field still lacks a bullseye. Bus drivers, cafeteria workers, attendance officers, superintendents, parents, and students are all working hard. We are measuring the arrow and missing the target.

What the research tells us

• Absenteeism is the sum of a student's experience in and out of school. Attending comes first, then participating, bonding, believing, and persisting.

• Bonding predicts showing up. The Perception of School Social Bonding (PSSB) instrument, validated with 3,507 students, measures attachment, involvement, and belief in the student's own voice.

• Attendance behavior is the early signal. In a machine learning study of K-6 students with Fight For Life Foundation, attendance behaviors separated low-risk from high-risk students more clearly than test scores or demographics, and peer relationships made the difference.

• Persistence is the long game. A missed day in ninth grade returns as a missed opportunity at nineteen.

A bucket with holes

The field is pouring more data than ever into a bucket with holes: one number for every absence, no reason code, no student voice, no household view, and no record of place, so a failed bus route or a flooded road lands on the child's record. The U.S. Department of Education already built part of the fix in the free ED School Climate Surveys, whose engagement domain covers relationships and school participation. And the investment is real: at $17,619 per pupil, about $98 per student per day, a student who reaches 18 absences leaves about $1,760 of public investment unrealized.

What the SchoolStatus data show

SchoolStatus's 2024–25 Attendance Trends Report, covering about 1.3 million students in its partner districts, found 32.13% of 12th graders chronically absent, compared with 14.22% of 5th graders. High school is where the 10% line strains most. Our high schoolers are adult learners who show up when learning feels relevant, and the factors stack on the same child: illness, sleep, caregiving, transportation, a heat day, a flooded road. Each looks small; together they cross 18 days. Dr. Gentle-Genitty recommended refining the signal with an early check-in point, a clearer concern band, and a reason code on every absence.

Attendance Science™ in a district

Dr. Amy Carter brought the district view, showing how her team turns attendance data into early identification, family outreach, and partnerships. As Dr. Gentle-Genitty noted, that is family stability work, even when it is filed under attendance, and it starts with one question: "What happened?" rather than "Why weren't you here?"

Attendance USA™ and the policy agenda

Dr. Gentle-Genitty framed student participation as an economic indicator. Economists watch labor force participation as a national vital sign, and student participation is the same human behavior at an earlier age. Claudia Goldin's 2023 Nobel-winning research shows participation is decided inside households, around caregiving, schedules, and family need, and school attendance is decided at the same kitchen table. That is why family stability sits at the center of Attendance Science™.

• Policymakers: require cause-coded absence reporting and a student-voiced engagement measure alongside the chronic absence rate.

• District leaders: hold a weekly reason review, assign a named response to each absence category, and track whether engagement rises with attendance.

• Partners: fund transportation routes and reliability as attendance policy, give climate disruptions their own code, and bring health systems to the table.

Attendance USA™ exists to unite education and care, merge lanes across silos, and give the field one shared measure: family stability first, student voice always.

One action for the next twelve months: report three numbers instead of one. Next to every chronic absence rate, add a reason code for each absence and a student-voiced engagement score. Then begin every conversation with a family by asking, "What happened?" Who showed up for you? Now it is our turn to show up for them.

Attendance + Technology

A statewide AI attendance pilot with a built-in evaluation. Rhode Island's three-year partnership with Edia is now in its first fall. When a student is absent, Edia opens a two-way text conversation with a parent or caregiver in their preferred language to learn what is getting in the way, then routes cases needing more help to school staff. Year one includes 67 randomly selected schools across ten districts so that RAND, with funding from the Overdeck Family Foundation, can measure the effect and publish the results. In years two and three, the tool will be available at no cost to every Rhode Island school (Rhode Island Department of Education).

Why it matters: Randomized rollout means the field will learn whether AI-assisted family outreach changes attendance, which is the evidence districts need before investing.

Data privacy note: Districts adopting family messaging tools should confirm how sensitive information about health, housing, and family circumstances is stored, who can see it, and how it is protected under FERPA.

New Attendance Players

School avoidance liaisons. With New York City's October 31 deadline, the school avoidance liaison becomes one of the largest new attendance roles in the country. As other districts consider similar positions, the field has an opportunity to define the knowledge these roles require, from classifying avoidance and refusal to partnering with families on a gradual return.

Where Attention Should Be Right Now

• Treat returns as classroom wins. When peer absences spread, every student welcomed back protects classmates too.

• Measure climate alongside attendance. Safety, connection, rigor, and trust help explain why similar schools differ.

• Name the person who notices. Whether or not your state requires it, designate an adult who watches for avoidance and anxiety-related absence.

• Shorten the data loop. Monthly reviews catch patterns while there is still time to act.

• Know your definitions. As states change how they count absences, confirm what your local code captures before comparing rates.

Resources for School Districts & Organizations

• Gentle-Genitty Family Stability Index (GG-FSI) (Attendance USA™, Version 1.0, October 2026): now recruiting field-test sites. The GG-FSI extends the PSSB from school to home, asking whether a family's daily conditions make attendance possible. Thirty items across six areas (economic; housing, environment and mobility; health; caregiving and routine; education and development; and relational, social and community stability) produce a Family Stability Score, with a companion Family Stability Reserve estimating how much backup a family has when something goes wrong. It is administered as a guided, strengths-based conversation: "a conversation, never a verdict." Schools, districts, and community organizations interested in piloting can write to info@attendanceusa.org. Explore all Attendance USA™ instruments.

• ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS): free surveys from the National Center for Education Statistics for students, staff, and parents, covering engagement, safety, and environment, with school, district, and state scores and national benchmarks. The engagement domain includes relationships and school participation, a natural companion to the PSSB.

• Assessing Wellbeing in Schools: ED School Climate Surveys (Bates and Boren, EdTech Books, 2025): an open textbook chapter explaining how educators can use the EDSCLS.

• Annual Survey of School System Finances (U.S. Census Bureau): per-pupil spending and revenue data by state and district.

• Connection, Trust, and Learning (UChicago Consortium): how school climate relates to attendance in middle and high school.

• AttendanceK12 Free Resource Library: policy and letter templates and short training videos.

For Parents & Families

If your child is anxious about school, you are far from alone, and help exists. You can ask your school:

Who is the adult here who helps students who feel worried about coming to school?
Can we build a plan for a gradual return, with support for missed work?
Would an evaluation help us understand what my child needs?
How will you and I stay in touch as we try the plan?

Keep in touch with your child's friends and classmates' families too. Attendance grows in community, and every child who comes back helps others come back as well.

Attendance USA™ in the Field

Corpus Christi, Texas | IATDP 114th Annual Conference, October 18–21, 2026. The International Association for Truancy and Dropout Prevention gathers at the Omni Corpus Christi Hotel under the theme Charting the Course: Connection as the Anchor to Truancy and Dropout Prevention. Dr. Gentle-Genitty is a featured keynote speaker. Visit the Attendance USA™ booth, come talk with us, and join the national network.

• Conference details and agenda at a glance

• Join IATDP and connect with Attendance USA™

ParentSquare Webinar | Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 3:00 p.m. ET (45 minutes). Why Students Are Not Showing Up: A Conversation on Attendance and Family Engagement. Behind every absence is a family facing a challenge or a student with a barrier to overcome. Dr. Gentle-Genitty and Alex Meis, Vice President of Attendance Strategy at ParentSquare, sit down for an open conversation on what districts are learning, why family stability and strong family partnerships sit behind so much of the progress, and how schools can bring education and care back together. Live Q&A to close. Designed for attendance directors and coordinators, student services and MTSS leaders, school social workers and counselors, community partners, and superintendents. Register now.

New Books & Publications

• Kirksey, Gottfried, Ansari & Lansford (2026), Missing Classmates and Attendance Patterns in Elementary Schools, American Educational Research Journal 63(1), 197—222.

• Allensworth, Antony, Delgado & de la Torre (2026), Connection, Trust, and Learning: Student Attendance in the Middle and High School Grades Following the COVID-19 Pandemic, UChicago Consortium on School Research.

• Bates & Boren (2025), Assessing Wellbeing in Schools: An Educator's Practical Guide to Measuring Wellbeing, EdTech Books, open access.

Field Notes: The Room Around the Child

A student stays home, and the next morning a classmate does too.

A school with a strong climate sees more students arrive, even in the same neighborhood as a school that struggles.

A liaison in New York learns a student's name and the worry that keeps them home.

Attendance is shared. So is the work of restoring it. When we welcome one student back, we strengthen the whole room.

Don't just count absence. Understand it.

Have we created a place worth showing up for, for every student in the room?