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Everyone Is Missing More School: How Student Attendance Patterns Have Shifted over Time

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Title: Everyone Is Missing More School: How Student Attendance Patterns Have Shifted over Time
Language: English
Authors: Jacob Kirksey, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Source: American Enterprise Institute. 2025.
Availability: American Enterprise Institute. 1150 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-862-5800; Fax: 202-862-7177; Web site: http://www.aei.org
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 22
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Descriptors: Attendance Patterns, Attendance, Elementary Secondary Education, Average Daily Attendance, COVID-19, Pandemics
Geographic Terms: North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia
Abstract: In 2023, more than one in four students nationwide was chronically absent--nearly double the rate observed before the pandemic. But chronic absenteeism tells only part of the story. Using longitudinal student-level data from North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia, this report examines how attendance patterns shifted from 2018 through 2024 by tracking not only trends in chronic absenteeism but also changes in the full distribution of student absences over time. The report also documents a shift in attendance trajectories over time. Many students who became highly absent during the pandemic remained so through 2023 and 2024, even as the overall concentration of missed days among the most frequently absent students remained stable. Together, these patterns reflect a broader change in student attendance behavior, with implications for how schools monitor and respond to instructional time lost.
Abstractor: ERIC
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: ED677901
Database: ERIC
FullText Text:
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  Data: In 2023, more than one in four students nationwide was chronically absent--nearly double the rate observed before the pandemic. But chronic absenteeism tells only part of the story. Using longitudinal student-level data from North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia, this report examines how attendance patterns shifted from 2018 through 2024 by tracking not only trends in chronic absenteeism but also changes in the full distribution of student absences over time. The report also documents a shift in attendance trajectories over time. Many students who became highly absent during the pandemic remained so through 2023 and 2024, even as the overall concentration of missed days among the most frequently absent students remained stable. Together, these patterns reflect a broader change in student attendance behavior, with implications for how schools monitor and respond to instructional time lost.
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