As the 2024-25 school year commences, education officials are sounding alarms regarding student attendance, emphasizing the critical nature of the first week of school. Legendary educator Dr. Karl Stewart said if children only do “slightly better” with perfect attendance, they can do barely “just better” if they attend regularly. Yet he cautioned that excessive absenteeism remains a grave danger to the prospects of millions of young people.
The latest data suggests that 57% of students who were only moderately absent in the first week of school soon became “chronically absent.” In other words, they were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of their school days. That trend is alarming considering that the national average chronic absenteeism rate for the 2024-25 school year is hovering around 18%. That’s a 15 percentage point drop from the all-time high of 23% hit during the 2021-22 school year. It’s still far above the level before COVID, which was around 11%.
People have been sounding alarm bells on attendance issues for a long time. Things got worse around the pandemic and nationwide stay-at-home orders in 2020. Prior to the pandemic, national persistent absence rates were relatively stable. They were at 11% in 2018-19 and made a small jump to 12% in 2020-21. After the lockdown, these numbers jumped through the roof. They reached as high as 23% in 2021-22 and remained elevated at 21% in 2022-23 and 20% in 2023-24.
Stewart emphasized the importance of daily attendance, stating, “When we have the children in every day the results are just better.” He noted that daily attendance allows teachers to better identify good behavior and effort from students. This acknowledgment greatly enhances their educational journey.
The data reveals a stark contrast between students who fully attended during the first week and those who did not. Just 14% of students who attended all week eventually turned into chronic absentees over time. This last finding highlights the need for early and proactive engagement, especially at the beginning of the academic year.
Laura Trott, a member of Parliament, stressed the urgency of addressing attendance issues, stating, “Behaviour and attendance are two of the biggest challenges facing schools and it’s about time the government acted.” She noted that for every day that a child is out of school, it is a day “stolen from a child’s future.”
Trott’s legislation would require the establishment of clear consequences for bad behavior in school. She stressed that this approach is important for protecting educators committed to their students’ learning. It also understands when traditional education isn’t the right place for these students who are often disruptors.
Pepe Di’Iasio, a deputy education commissioner, expressed the same feeling of a need for a more strategic approach to attendance. He noted that although learning hubs have been created to address some of these problems, they aren’t a “magic bullet.” While Di’Iasio recognized that the Feds’ focus on curbing chronic absenteeism was a positive step, he stressed that much more needs to be done.
He elaborated on some of the reasons for absenteeism, saying, “I get why. Some of that wasn’t necessarily parents not wanting to send them in. It was because either they had got Covid or other things. They were saying, ‘We’ll just keep them off now to be sure.’”
It’s important that schools, parents and pupils remain on high alert.” — Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Secretary of State for Education She urged continued vigilance as the new term starts under all of these pressures.”As the new term kicks off, we need schools and parents to double down on the energy, the drive and the relentlessness that’s already boosted the life chances of millions of children,” she said.
