The number of stories nearly doubled in 2023, but the need for high-quality absenteeism coverage remains just as strong.
By Hedy Chang and Catherine Cooney, Attendance Works
Following two-plus years of on-again, off-again quarantine and disrupted learning, the number of students who are chronically absent has exploded. These high levels of absenteeism have been occurring in tandem with reductions in student achievement.
After a slow start, news coverage of the absenteeism crisis has surged. At 13,748, the number of stories published in 2023 was nearly double the total number of stories reported in the entirety of 2022.
The new year was off to a fast start, with a major piece in the New Yorker about home visit programs.
Like that piece, much of the coverage on this consequential issue is excellent. But in a few cases, certain problems have surfaced, and they tend to be the same ones:
- A failure to distinguish between chronic absenteeism and truancy.
- A focus on one student, local leader, or “silver bullet” program rather than including the wider range of people and the broad systemic solutions needed to overcome the challenges involved.
Looking at the best coverage of this important issue — and there is plenty of it — will help education reporters delve into this topic in their own backyards. So, too, will looking at examples that have missed the mark.
We also offer four ideas to keep in mind for deeper and perhaps more well-informed coverage in the year ahead, including defining chronic absenteeism clearly, making use of abundant data, highlighting school- and district-level approaches, and producing stories that explain underlying root causes.
The number of stories published in 2023 was nearly double the total number of stories reported in the entirety of 2022.
Great Examples
Education Week has kept chronic absenteeism at the top of the list of issues affecting a quality education and efforts to recover from the pandemic, including conducting surveys asking students and teachers about barriers to being in school and reporting on strategies that can help as well as state policies and national data.
In High Absenteeism Hits More Schools, Affecting Students With Strong Attendance, Too Education Week reporter Evie Blad expands the impact from missing too many days for kids who are not attending to how it affects those who are in school every day: “Even students who are consistently present suffer when large numbers of their peers fail to show up.”
The New York Times has kept its eye on chronic absence as well. The Key to Getting Students Back in Classrooms? Establishing Connections begins by describing the difference between truancy and chronic absenteeism: “To get students back into the classroom this year, school districts are abandoning the punitive, truancy-based approaches deployed in the past and instead turning to innovative programs that engage students and families.”
Chalkbeat’s coverage has also produced some strong pieces.
The story of One Detroit school’s multilayered effort to get absent students back to school,
published by Chalkbeat Detroit, goes a step further and illustrates that a multi-pronged approach involving everyone in the school building is necessary to create the positive environment that motivates attendance and engagement.
Reporters Ethan Bakuli and Tracie Mauriello interviewed teachers to illustrate the burden that chronic absence is having on their ability to teach. The parent in the article (Gloria Vanhoosier) was quoted talking about how much she benefited from the school’s efforts to build relationships with families. After talking with the school, Vanhoosier says, “Now I feel that she sees my struggle and is concerned for me.” The conversation with the school motivated this parent to rethink her attitude about her children’s absences and its impact on their grades.
Missing the Mark
Less effective is coverage that mixes the terms truancy and chronic absenteeism as if they are the same thing. For example, the headline and subheadline on this October 2023 story by WTMJ in Milwaukee presents the two kinds of school absence as the same thing.
At the same time, the reporting does cover important elements by including local chronic absence numbers, examining some of the challenges students face getting to school and profiling local efforts to meet with families and students who are missing too many days. It partly defines chronic absence as missing 10% or more of school days, but it doesn’t explain that those absences can be excused, unexcused, or due to suspensions.
The Grade has featured coverage of chronic absenteeism several times in recent months and will continue to do so in the upcoming weeks.
What can reporters do?
Taking a more expansive approach to the subject leads to more informative stories that give readers a realistic and helpful picture.
- Define chronic absence and why it matters
As a reporter, you can help clarify attendance terms. In 2008, Hedy Chang and Mariajosé Romero published research finding that young students who missed 10% or nearly a month of school for any reason — including excused and unexcused absences — did worse academically. Chang subsequently elevated the concept of “chronic absence” to capture missing so much school for any reason that a student is academically at risk and differentiated this from truancy (unexcused absences) and from average daily attendance (how many students show up to school each day). Data on truancy and average daily attendance can easily mask high levels of chronic absence. For example, in a school of 200 students with 95% average daily attendance, 30% (or 60) of the students could be missing nearly a month of school over the course of the school year.
Another key role that reporters can play is explaining why paying attention to chronic absence matters. A substantial body of research now shows that chronic absence is associated with declines in educational engagement, social-emotional development, and executive functioning. And when chronic absence reaches high levels in a classroom or school, it affects not only the students who are missing, but impacts the learning of those who show up every day.
Chronic absenteeism has real impacts on student well-being, not just on academics. Research shows that regular school attendance can lead to healthier students who grow into healthier adults. The Showing Up Matters for REAL toolkit offers a framework for talking with students and families about how school offers an array of opportunities that go beyond academic learning, as Evie Blad notes in a story in Education Week.
- Build awareness of the data
Equally important, reporters can help everyone understand the size and scale of the challenge as well as which groups are especially affected. Many are unaware that chronic absence is an enormous issue for many students and schools. The 74 regularly covers the data story well. In Empty Desks: New Absenteeism Report Shows Dramatic Surge in Suburban, Rural & Latino Students Missing Class, reporter Joshua Bay reports not only the national numbers, but he also describes demographics, ethnicities, economic background, and geographic location. For local stories, reporters can analyze district and state chronic absence data to point out which schools, districts, or groups of students especially need attention given their especially elevated rates of chronic absence.
- Explain how some schools and communities are successfully reducing chronic absence
There are proven strategies and places where improvements are being seen today. This can be led by the state department of education. Connecticut’s commitment to treating attendance as foundational to student success has resulted in a state-wide definition of a day of school, a state dashboard that publicly reports chronic absence data monthly, and integrated efforts to combat chronic absenteeism with the technical assistance offered to its lowest performing districts. During the pandemic, the state developed a home visiting program (Learner Engagement and Attendance Program, or LEAP), which helped to significantly reduce chronic absenteeism, as described in Chronic School Absenteeism Shows Sharp Decline After Home Visitation Program.
Districts across the country, in Columbus, Ohio; Johnstown, New York; and Long Beach, California, to name a few, are reaching out to families and developing innovative programs at school to engage students. In Long Beach, leaders partnered with a local housing project and held sessions to educate teachers about the impact of chronic absenteeism. Read more in Districts Pivot Their Strategies to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism During Distance Learning.
Avoid, however, focusing on one heroic leader or a silver bullet solution. In our work with districts and states we have seen that chronic absence drops when the entire school community is involved in a variety of strategies. In Horton Elementary Is Chipping Away at Chronic Absenteeism, reporter Jakob McWhinney interviews the school principal as well as members of the school team working to improve attendance efforts.
4. Explain why addressing reasons for chronic absence, not punitive action, works
Reporters can point out that the key to reducing chronic absence is addressing the underlying causes of absences. Interview students, families, and teachers to paint a deeper picture of what is causing students to miss school, as Jacey Fortin did for her story in the New York Times. Key challenges include lack of access to health care, confusion over when to stay home, and housing instability. KCUR in Kansas City did a good job highlighting this in a video and created a booklet about the investigation.
Reporters can build awareness that punitive approaches do not work and reduce the ability of schools to partner with students and families to understand the underlying reasons for absence. The stories that bring a deeper understanding to this can garner stronger public support for methods that help these struggling kids.
Hedy Nai-Lin Chang is the founder and Executive Director of Attendance Works, the nation’s go-to resource for attendance policy and practice. Catherine Cooney is the Director of Communications for Attendance Works, where she leads the internal and external communication functions of the organization.
Previously from The Grade:
Better ways to cover Black homeschooling
Bringing energy and creativity to literacy coverage
Social & emotional learning is all the rage; here are 5 smart ways to cover it
Controversy-mongering coverage of social and emotional learning
