What’s all the buzz about student attendance? If you are connected to K-12 education or workforce development, you have likely heard the buzz about current student attendance rates dropping with emphasized concern over chronically absent students who are categorized as students who have at missed at least 10% of their academic school year.
According to the Arizona Department of Education, students who were chronically absent in 2019 made up only about 14% of K-8 classrooms. While these numbers improved slightly in 2023, they are still hovering around 28% – double pre-pandemic rates. For children who are more vulnerable due to economic or minority status, chronic absenteeism jumps to even higher numbers, around 35%.
Why is this such a big deal? Can missing 2 days of school a month, or 18 days a year, actually make that big of a difference? Unfortunately, the ramifications are far more serious than many people understand. To examine the outcomes, it is important to understand the nature of learning itself, and the complications that arise from social contexts and external factors.
POV: An absent first grade student
Imagine a child in first grade who misses one day of school. During that day, the class reviews a new math concept, chooses groups for a science project, and takes turns reading words that ended with a magic “e”. The next Monday, this same student is given a worksheet with the new math concept, but since the content is new, she does not understand. The teacher gives her a quick explanation between lessons, but it’s not quite enough time for understanding and she scores poorly on the worksheet. When the class takes turns reading out loud, she has not had the review and mispronounces the words. Another student corrects her, and now embarrassment is added to confusion. During science, the class splits into their groups to discuss their projects. Our student is added to a group, but the group has already chosen a project and begun to plan. She missed the demonstration, and her classmates tell her just to watch them do the experiment. Beginning to feel behind in everything, she sighs, sits back and stares out the window, thinking that she doesn’t like school.
Now imagine this same thing happens multiple weeks in the year because the same child misses one school day every other week. What are the outcomes for this child by the end of the school year? In a communal learning experience like a classroom, we begin to see the social emotional complications that arise from missing school as well as the compounding effect of missed instructional time.
The compounding impact of interrupted learning
Just like the scenario above, we see that learning is iterative and progressive, continuously building on previously gained knowledge and skills. This is especially important in younger grades when students are learning foundational knowledge and skills to read, write, and understand the building blocks of mathematics. In fact, children who are not reading proficiently by the end of 3rd grade are 4 times more likely not to graduate high school. And 8th grade graduates who do not enter high school ready for advanced mathematics and science courses find themselves at a disadvantage to be able to enter STEM careers such as engineering, computer science, or medicine. Interrupted learning, therefore, can impact not only the time lost, but a student’s ability to learn new concepts and skills because they have not mastered foundational elements.
Simple ways to increase student attendance and overcome interrupted learning
The good news is that we do not have to accept these recent statistics; there are simple ways to combat attendance challenges, ensuring that Arizona children are setup for success.
1. Awareness is key
The first thing we can do is raise awareness of the risk to students. Chronic absenteeism skyrocketed after the pandemic when people became accustomed to fluctuating school attendance. Since then, school attendance has simply not recovered. We can make a difference by helping parents understand that school attendance is a real and present factor in student achievement.
One simple way you can help is by joining School Connect, Helios Education Foundation, Valley of the Sun United Way, Read On Arizona, and Attendance Works to raise awareness, sharing key data about how attendance matters for Arizona youth.
2. Belonging is essential
Human connection is proving to be one of the most powerful motivating factors to support school attendance. Belen Soto Elementary School uses something called “wish wells” to help students share what is on their minds, celebrate special moments, and remind students that they belong to a school family. As Principal Courtney Frazier shares, “Every kid knows that if they are absent their name will be in the wish wells and that we will be thinking about them…[They] know that when they are not here, we miss them.”
The importance of belonging is underscored for children who are vulnerable due to economic or minority status. Building a culture of care which values all children ensures that no child is lost. At Sunnyslope School, for instance they have taken a stand to declare, “There is hope in the slope, and that is us; we are the hope in the slope!”
3. Underlying causes may be at fault
Large percentages of chronically absent students can signify underlying causes which must be addressed to create the conditions for improvement. Think back to the absent first grade student. What caused her frequent absences? Does her parent have to pick up extra shifts on Fridays complicating school drop-offs? Are she and her siblings short on clothing, or are there unmet medical needs in the home? In these cases, it is important to understand the needs of vulnerable children in order to coordinate solutions as a community.
4. We can incentivize attendance
The same way that student behavior is significantly improved when schools incentivize students with rewards and leadership opportunities, student attendance can improve from motivating rewards given when a class, grade or entire school reaches specific attendance goals. Celebrating progress toward clearly defined goals can make a serious impact on attendance numbers!
If you are a parent, community member, or partnering school organization, one way to support attendance is to volunteer or share prizes for students who improve their school attendance. Love Our Schools Day projects, for example, can be used to customize a game room where students can earn time when they reach attendance goals.
5. We can “time travel” with students
The Avondale Elementary School District uses a Kids at Hope philosophy to help children dream, and then works toward that dream until it is a reality. One way they do this is by “time traveling” with students. Every student is asked to envision who they wish to become in the future. Next, they back trace the steps needed to meet that future version of themselves, and finally they plan action steps to reach their dreams such as becoming a pilot, scientist, author or astronaut!
In this way school and community leaders “time travel” with students, celebrating every forward step toward their dream destinations. We can use the same technique to increase school attendance and therefore student success!
6. Community can help!
Tackling any challenge alone can be daunting, not to mention that without support from the community, a school is limited to their own resources – resources which will likely need to be reallocated from another focus.
This is one way that community makes all the difference. During a School Connect CAFE, community leaders are invited to sit down with a principal to learn key goals and felt needs. Together the community can share resources and find ways to reach goals with the multiplication effect of a team: increasing ideas, resources and opportunities. If you or your organization is interested in partnering with a school to impact children, teachers, and families – consider joining a School Connect CAFE!
As we look to the future for K-12 student attendance the numbers are clear; there is very real danger to a significant number of youth if we do not intervene. Fortunately, there are simple, actionable steps to reduce these numbers by connecting with our communities.
As Yoko Ono said, “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is a reality.”
Will you join us?
Tracey Beal
Founder & CEO, School Connect
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