WHY CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM MAY BE HERE TO STAY

Students started missing more school with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and attendance is far from fully recovered. Is this a permanent change?

- BY JILL BARSHAY

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times

L.A. SCHOOLS SUPT. Alberto M. Carvalho, right, exits an electric school bus in Boyle Heights.

Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most surprising ways that school has profoundly, and perhaps permanently, changed is that students aren’t showing up. A recent symposium at the American Enterprise Institute, where scholars shared research on the problem of widespread absenteeism, offered insights into the nationwide issue. Here are the key takeaways:

1. Chronic absenteeism has decreased from its peak in 2021-22, but it’s still 50% higher than before the pandemic.

Roughly speaking, the chronic absenteeism rate nearly doubled after the pandemic, from 15% of students in 2018-19 to a peak of almost 29% in 2021-22. This is the share of students who are missing at least 10%, or 18 or more days, of school a year. Chronic absenteeism has dropped by about 2 to 3 percentage points a year since then, but was still at 23.5% in 2023-24, according to the most recent AEI data.

Chronic absenteeism is more than 50% higher than it used to be. There are about 48 million public school students, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Almost 1 in 4 of them, or 11 million students, are missing a lot of school.

2. High-income students and high achievers are also skipping school.

Absenteeism cuts across economic lines. Students from both lowand high-income families are often absent, as are high-achieving students. Rates are the highest among students in low-income districts, where 30% of students are chronically absent, according to AEI data.

But even in low-poverty districts, the chronic absenteeism rate has jumped more than 50% from about 10% of students to more than 15%. Similarly, more than 15% of students in the highest-achieving school districts, the top third, are chronically absent, up from 10% in pre-pandemic years.