The pandemic exacerbated student absenteeism.

Chronic student absenteeism, characterized as missing at least 10 percent of the school year, has increased markedly in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, it doubled from 15 percent in 2018-19 to 30 percent in the 2021-22 school year. Chronic absenteeism can have profound effects on student academic performance, social development, and overall well-being. To help students attend school regularly, policymakers and school leaders need to identify and implement evidence-based approaches that work in diverse contexts.  

NORC will synthesize data from multiple studies to estimate the effectiveness of absenteeism interventions. 

NORC will conduct a comprehensive literature review of absenteeism interventions that are used in the U.S. from preschool through high school. It will include studies published in English between 2016 through the present day. That period follows the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, which shone a light on school attendance by requiring states to include an additional “non-achievement” indicator in their accountability reporting. Currently, more than 80 percent of states have chosen an attendance metric as the additional indicator. 

NORC’s review includes the following factors from the studies:

• Setting, such as urban, suburban, or rural
• Grade levels, such as preK, elementary, middle school, high school or mixed 
• Whether the study had been peer-reviewed
• Whether the study was a randomized control trial

We will use meta-analytic methods to quantitatively estimate the effectiveness of different types of absenteeism interventions.