Writers Call For Focus On Chronic Absenteeism

In a piece for Education Week (1/5), Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, and Robert Balfanz, director of the Everybody Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, write that Congress should address "the number of students missing 20 days or more of school each year. Obviously, missing so much school is a problem for the absent students...but these absences also affect other students, when teachers have to slow their instruction to accommodate students who missed lessons the first time they were taught." The writers cite research showing declining overall test scores at schools with high levels of chronic absenteeism, and note that "mayors and education leaders in New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, and other cities, large and small, are catching on to this impact and recognizing that a reduction in absences starting in the early grades is one of the more straightforward, actionable steps they can take to improve schools and community health."