Chronic absenteeism can’t be addressed by threats to children
Our kids don’t want to go to school everyday. If this is a newsflash for you, I’d suggest you ask a child their thoughts. In the history of schools, this has been a truism. If we could ask little Amarezen in ancient Mesopotamia circa 2500 B.C.E. if he wanted to go learn cuneiform at the Edubba (the place that educated and trained young scribes), with the other privileged young scribes, he would likely say “Nah fam.”
That being said, we have an alarming problem right now in Georgia schools concerning chronic absenteeism. Some 19.5% of our beautiful students in 2024-25 missed 10% or more days of school. That’s about 18 school days in a single academic year. The year before that was 21.3% and 2021-22 had a startling 23.9% rate of students chronically absent.
The trend line the past four years is going in the right direction, down, but it’s a far cry from good.
Georgia ranks at 17th best in the nation as far as ratings of chronic absenteeism. Gov. Brian Kemp has required the most affected districts and schools to have a rigid reporting structure and attendance review teams to address the issues. Richard Woods, the state school superintendent, has addressed the problem by getting buy-in from multiple statewide partners committing to a 50% reduction in chronic absenteeism across the state over five years.
A state Senate study committee has proposed student driver’s licenses should be on the chopping block if students are chronically absent. Piggybacking on Senate Bill 123 signed into law this year which prevents students from being expelled if they are chronically absent, the committee is trying to find ways to incentivize and de-incentivize the issue.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, absentee levels across the entire country have suffered. Kids and families leaned into distance learning models, where in person attendance was optional or unrequired. In-person attendance at school (if your child’s school was open) was often strongly discouraged by some for a number of reasons. In some districts, it was even deemed an act of sacrifice and virtue signaling to hold your kids out of the schoolhouse.
Is it any wonder that now we have a problem with school attendance?
During the pandemic, parents, caregivers and kids got out of the habit of thinking that school attendance was mandatory in large part because schools told parents, caregivers and kids it wasn’t. The pandemic held many challenges, all complex problems with no simple solution. (I wrote about them at length here, here, here, and here).
School closures were highly contentious and politicized. Administrators were burdened with daunting decisions using medical information, some accurate and some not. Many districts resorted to the finger in the wind approach to decision making.
Whatever your stance on school closures during the pandemic, this is a textbook case of unintended consequences.
Data suggests that one-quarter of youths in K–12 districts nationwide do not think being chronically absent from school is a problem. The most commonly reported reason for missing school was sickness. It’s imperative that schools use the same strong language that discouraged this cohort of parents and kids to stay home, to now change their beliefs, habits and thinking patterns that they had for a full year during the pandemic.
Changing habits and beliefs is no easy task. “Show up Georgia” must be the Georgia Department of Education’s new branding instead of everyone’s 2020 favorite, “Stay home y’all.”
If schools want kids to show up, they have to make them feel wanted, known and missed if they’re not there. This isn’t threatening language, it’s positive. We care, we want you here, in your seat, everyday. If the teachers are stressed because of workload (two-thirds of teachers surveyed work at least six hours of overtime per week) plus handling chronic absenteeism and in-class cellphone usage (two of the three biggest disruptors cited by teachers) they probably don’t have space to check in with absent students/families. Appropriate attendance office staffing is essential.
The areas with highest rates of chronic absenteeism are the schools that are serving kids impacted by single parent households, food insecurity, bus driver shortages and low performing schools. These kids probably aren’t getting a BMW in their driveway on their 16th birthday so it’s likely ineffective to take away their driver’s license. Punitive approaches have historically had low success rates.
Parents and older students need connection and accountability. These families need relational support, they need practical help, they need for the buses to pick up and drop off at the same time everyday. They need schools to make sure they have the same teachers in their classrooms everyday.
The importance of morning routine should be emphasized to parents, kids and caregivers. Consistent daily habits go a long way in getting kids to school everyday with minimal stress and anxiety. It can even lead to higher performance in academics.
If all of these things sound basic, they are. Absenteeism isn’t a new problem. It’s as old as the establishment of school, but so are the solutions. If we want those 360,000 kids who were chronically absent in Georgia last year to show up, we should too — in policy, staffing and school culture.
Beth Collums is an Atlanta-based writer. With a professional background in child and family therapy, she often writes about mental health, relationships and education.
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