Headline Intelligence

Connecticut’s Home-Visit Program Shows Five Years of Gains

Connecticut released new state data on August 19 showing chronic absenteeism has fallen every year for four consecutive years. The rate peaked near 24% in 2021 and now stands at approximately 16.4%. That translates into roughly 35,000 more students attending school regularly.

State officials credit the Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP), launched in 2021. The program trains school staff to make home visits and work directly with parents and children.

Why it matters: This is an important real-world example of a relationship-based intervention producing sustained, state-level attendance gains. It also reinforces something worth remembering: attendance improvement is not always about creating a stronger consequence. Sometimes it is about creating a stronger relationship.

Research Watch

One in Four Young People May Not See Missing School as a Serious Problem

RAND’s American Youth Panel surveyed approximately 1,300 students ages 12–21. 74% said missing three or more weeks of school in a year is a real problem that is difficult to recover from. That also means roughly one in four young people disagreed.

Attendance Science™ lens: We cannot assume students perceive absence the same way adults do. For some students, improving attendance may require more than explaining consequences. It may require strengthening belonging, engagement, relevance, relationships, and students’ own understanding of why presence matters.

Is Absenteeism the Problem — or a Symptom of the Problem?

National coverage this week featured health and outdoor-recreation leaders arguing that chronic absenteeism may be a downstream symptom of deeper struggles, including mental health concerns, illness, and disconnection. Leaders also pointed to recess and outdoor time as relatively low-cost opportunities to support student wellbeing and engagement.

If absenteeism is a symptom, are our interventions addressing the absence — or investigating what the absence is telling us?

The question we’re asking

Policy Watch

States Are Moving in Two Very Different Directions

This may be one of the most important national trends to watch.

• Vermont is maintaining chronic absence at 10% while defining truancy as 20 or more unexcused absences. When school-based support fails, parents may face fines or court involvement.
• West Virginia is moving in the opposite direction. House Bill 4656 shifts away from criminal penalties for truant students and emphasizes early intervention, family engagement, school-based support, and community services.
• Oregon is expanding attendance data collection and requiring public reporting.
• Missouri is considering required meetings with parents after specified levels of unexcused absence and child-welfare reporting when noncompliance continues.
• Tennessee now allows unexcused absences to follow a student who transfers schools during the year.
• New Jersey is considering a statewide chronic absenteeism task force charged with studying data and identifying root causes.
• Mississippi is considering requirements for evidence-based interventions for chronically absent students and for schools and districts experiencing the highest rates.

The intelligence: The country is not moving toward one national attendance philosophy. Some states are increasing consequences. Others are reducing them. Still others are investing in transparency, root-cause analysis, and intervention. The question now is which approaches actually produce better attendance outcomes.

Federal Watch

The U.S. Department of Education’s Ed-Flex program reached 25 approved states on August 21. Ed-Flex allows participating state education agencies to waive certain federal requirements for districts, including some spending caps involving Student Support and Academic Enrichment funds — the same funding stream frequently used for attendance and family-engagement initiatives.

The Department also released new guidance on the responsible use of technology in schools on August 20. Why we’re watching: that guidance becomes increasingly important as districts introduce AI into attendance and family communication.

Attendance + Technology

AI-Powered Attendance Outreach Is Here

Palm Springs Unified School District in California launched its first AI-powered attendance system this week. Beginning August 25, parents receive an automatic welcome text followed by AI-generated outreach whenever their child is marked absent.

Watch the privacy question. Districts considering AI or predictive attendance systems should carefully evaluate compliance with FERPA and applicable state student-data privacy laws before adoption. Technology may help districts communicate faster. But faster communication is not automatically better intervention. The real question is whether technology strengthens the relationship between schools and families — or simply automates another attendance transaction.

New Attendance Players

A Better Chicago | Every Day Counts

A Better Chicago has launched a new five-year citywide initiative targeting six Chicago neighborhoods experiencing persistent absenteeism: Austin, Englewood, Garfield Park, South Lawndale, South Shore, and Woodlawn. The organization is conducting an open call for proposals and plans to fund a founding cohort of community organizations.

Tucson Unified | Community Liaison Pilot

Tucson Unified School District has hired 37 community liaisons to work directly with approximately 18,000 students identified as chronically absent. District leaders acknowledge that the current liaison workforce cannot fully cover that caseload. Expansion will depend on results.

Why it matters: Hiring liaisons is not enough. Caseload matters. A relationship-centered attendance model cannot work as designed if the person responsible for building those relationships is responsible for hundreds of students.

Where Attention Should Be Right Now

1. The policy divide. Some states are increasing consequences while others are removing them. Watch which strategies actually improve attendance by midyear.
2. Attendance Awareness Month. September 1 begins Attendance Awareness Month with the national theme Here Today, Ready for Tomorrow. The timing creates an opportunity for districts and organizations to strengthen attendance communication and engagement.
3. Liaison and navigator caseloads. As relationship-centered attendance models expand, implementation quality — and especially staffing ratios — deserves scrutiny.
4. AI adoption. Districts are moving quickly from experimentation to implementation. Privacy guidance and policy may not always be moving at the same speed.

For School Districts & Organizations

• Consider home visits and liaison models — but staff them appropriately. Connecticut’s results took years to build, while Tucson provides an early reminder of the importance of manageable caseloads.
• Create a state-specific attendance policy fact sheet. With attendance and truancy laws changing, families need plain-language information about the rules that actually apply where they live.
• Use Attendance Awareness Month strategically. September provides a national platform for local attendance messaging.
• Vet AI before buying it. Compare any attendance technology with current federal guidance and applicable privacy requirements before signing a contract.

For Parents & Families

• Know this year’s rules — not last year’s. State attendance and truancy laws are changing.
• Ask what happens when your child transfers. In some states, unexcused absences now follow the student.
• Respond quickly to attendance notices. If your family receives a legal notice or fine, early communication with the school is important.
• Ask about support. Your district may have a home-visit, family-liaison, navigator, or attendance-support program that families do not yet know exists.

On Our Reading Radar

Students’ Sense of Belonging and Involvement in College — Dr. Terrell L. Strayhorn. Published August 11, 2026 by Bloomsbury Academic, this research-based work examines belonging as a driver of persistence and success in higher education.

Belonging in School: Creating a Place Where Kids Want to Learn and Teachers Want to Stay — Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and colleagues. An illustrated K–12 playbook featuring 11 evidence-based strategies for strengthening belonging, with direct implications for engagement and attendance.

A Note from Attendance USA™

This week’s sweep shows a field moving in two directions at once. Some states are adding sharper consequences while others are removing them. Relationship-based interventions are demonstrating measurable results while districts are simultaneously turning to artificial intelligence. Students themselves are telling us that not everyone perceives absence as a serious problem. And health leaders are challenging us to consider whether chronic absenteeism may sometimes be a symptom of something deeper.

No single school, district, organization, or family should have to track all of this alone. Attendance USA™ exists to bring this work together — research, policy, practice, technology, and family experience — in one place, grounded in evidence and viewed through the evolving field of Attendance Science™.

If absenteeism is a symptom, are we designing interventions around the absence, or investigating what the absence is telling us?

The question we’re carrying into next week