The role of mentors in reducing chronic absenteeism

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education characterized chronic student absenteeism as a hidden educational crisis. So what constitutes chronic absenteeism? Most states define it as missing 10% or more of the school days in a given academic year — whether the absences are excused or unexcused — which translates to approximately 18 days.

This level of school absence is associated with a variety of adverse consequences, including individual course failure, risk of not graduating, and poor socio-emotional outcomes. Beyond these familiar outcomes, Michael Gottfried (2015) has also noted “congestion effects” — i.e. a packing together of related problems, such as delayed instruction for other students because teachers must spend time remediating those who’ve returned from an absence, or a loss of revenue for schools whose funding formulas are based on average daily attendance rates. In other words, when a few students are chronically absent, all students are harmed.

According to Hedy Chang and Phyllis Jordan (2017), schools and districts must flip their approach to attendance on its head, moving away from punitive responses and embracing community-based strategies to get more students to school every day. Making this happen will likely require the commitment of numerous community partners.