Attendance interventions for chronically absent students

There is strong evidence that interventions that assist chronically absent students improve their attendance. On average, such programs increase student attendance by about one week¹. However, program components and effects vary. Additional evidence is needed to determine which programmatic elements lead to the greatest improvements^{1, 3}.

Court-, school-, and community-based programs, and programs run through collaborations of these organizations all improve attendance^{1, 4}. Researchers recommend that communities prioritize ease of program implementation over cross-entity collaboration, as multi-modal programs do not appear more effective than programs implemented by a single stakeholder. Truancy is associated with additional delinquency, poor school performance, substance abuse, and school dropout¹.

A Los Angeles county-based study suggests that truancy interventions are more effective when they address students’ and families’ physical and mental health needs, increase school-based efforts, and improve coordination across partners⁵. In East and South Los Angeles, student interviews suggest shaping school environments to support student engagement, improving school responses to truancy, and further involving and engaging parents may increase the effectiveness of attendance interventions⁶.

Chronic absenteeism is most prevalent among students from families with low incomes; the highest rates are found among the youngest and oldest students, and seniors in high school often have the highest rates of all⁷. Students with serious emotional disturbance and learning disabilities also appear more likely to be chronically absent or become truant⁸.

U.S. and international research suggests that positive school climates, opportunities to bond with adults, and supports for developing students’ core competencies (e.g., self-esteem, self-control, decision making skills, etc.) may keep kids in school³.

The U.S. Departments of Education (U.S. ED), Health and Human Services (U.S. DHHS), Housing and Urban Development (U.S. HUD), and Justice (U.S. DOJ) “Every Student, Every Day” initiative helps coordinate systems of support among state and local education, health, housing, and justice systems to generate and act on absenteeism data, create and deploy positive messages and measures, and launch local initiatives to address chronic absenteeism⁹.

Oregon¹⁰ and Washington¹¹ are two states that have passed legislation to develop and implement plans to reduce chronic absenteeism. Other states have developed training modules, early warning systems, data collection efforts and resources to support interagency and cross-sector collaboration, as in Virginia¹² and New York¹³. Hawaii’s Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project includes a series of public service announcements to inspire kids to stay in school¹⁴.

Many local municipalities also support multi-sector, multi-agency partnerships to reduce chronic absenteeism. For example, in Washington, D.C., the Truancy Taskforce, the Graduation Pathways Project, and the Youth Re-Engagement Center are examples of collaborations to provide comprehensive supports for chronically absent students¹⁵.