Why students are chronically absent varies. How to get them back does, too.
A chronically absent child is missing out on more than learning.
1 in 10 schools experience extreme chronic absenteeism. 1
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• Social disengagement and feelings of alienation 2 • Increased frequency of disruptive behavior 3 • Strained relationships with teachers 4 • Adverse health outcomes and poverty in adulthood 5 Missing 10% of school days or more has a significant and cumulative impact on a child’s life and has been linked to not only reduced academic achievement, 2 but also:
1. Jordan, P., & Miller, R. (2017). Who’s in: Chronic absenteeism under the Every Student Succeeds Act. 2. Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2012). The importance of being in school: A report on absenteeism in the nation’s public schools. The Education Digest . 3. Gottfried, M. (2014). Chronic Absenteeism and Its Effects on Students’ Academic and Socioemotional Outcomes. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk . 4. Gottfried, M., Kim, P., & Fletcher, T. L. (2024). Do Teachers Perceive Absent Students Differently? AERA . 5. Schoeneberger, J. (2012). Longitudinal Attendance Patterns: Developing High School Dropouts. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies .
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In some districts, as little as a 1% shift in student attendance can equate to millions of dollars of operating funding. 1 In all districts, its impact is significant. The loss of funding can result in: • Larger class sizes • Fewer advanced classes • Loss of resources, including teachers But the impact goes far beyond funding. When students are chronically absent, everyone in the classroom is affected. 2 • Extra resources are often required to support students who missed lessons. • Additional support services must be identified for students who fall behind. • Teachers take on increased workloads trying to catch up absent students.
• Other students experience disruptions and delays to the learning environment.
1. Lieberman, M. (2024). Why chronic absenteeism is a budget problem, too. Education Week. 2. Institute of Education Sciences (2021). Evidence-Based Practices Related to Chronic Absenteeism. 3. Chang, H. (2024). Rising tide of chronic absence challenges schools. Attendance Works.
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When some students are chronically absent, all students pay the price.
of enrolled students attended a school with high or extreme levels of chronic absence in 2021–2022. 3 66%
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We help districts understand why
students are missing school, and plan for how to get them back. Schools that value and prioritize family engagement, equity and belonging, student well-being, and creating engaging learning experiences are better poised to curb absenteeism and garner participation from both their students and families.
Family Engagement
Chronic Absenteeism
39 % Schools with strong pre-existing family engagement experienced a 39% lower rate of chronic absenteeism in 2021–22 than similar schools with weaker family engagement. 1
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To re-engage all students, we must collaborate across school, community, and family lines. The positive impact of effective family and community engagement has been proven by decades of research, recent case studies, and every educator’s firsthand experience. 2, 3
Students with involved families and communities have:
Better attendance records
Better grades
More positive attitudes
Higher standardized test scores
Higher graduation rates
1. Peetz, C. (2023). New Research Finds a Crucial Factor in Reducing Chronic Absenteeism. Education Week . 2. Epstein, J. and Sheldon, S. (2002). Present and Accounted for: Improving Student Attendance through Family and Community Involvement. Journal of Educational Research . 3. Henderson, A. and Mapp, K. (2002). A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement. 5
Barriers
Aversion
Illness
Struggling academically
Trauma
Unwelcoming school climates
Transportation issues
Anxiety
Housing insecurities
Negative educational experiences
Reducing chronic absenteeism requires understanding and addressing the underlying root cause. 1
Misconceptions
Disengagement
Underestimate total absences
Lack of challenging, culturally responsive instruction No meaningful relationships with adults in school
Attendance only matters in older grades Absences are only a problem if unexcused
Lack of enrichment opportunities
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There are certain areas where we can really help. We can’t solve for every cause of chronic absenteeism, but...
A welcoming school climate
Positive educational experiences
Culturally responsive instruction
Meaningful relationships with adults at school
Enrichment opportunities
Engaging materials
Emphasis on the value of attendance
1. Chang, H. (2023). All Hands on Deck: Today’s Chronic Absenteeism Requires a Comprehensive District Response and Strategy. Attendance Works.
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Family, school, and community engagement is an instructional strategy.
This thinking is shared by some of the most successful districts, and Scholastic has proudly partnered with many of them.
Our shared approach to this work centers on four research-backed practices:
Elevate Staff
Empower Families
Welcome and Engage All
Partner with Community
By connecting the classroom, family, and community, we can create literacy ecosystems in which every child feels seen and valued. This comprehensive design drives increased attendance and improved academic outcomes for all learners.
1. Learning Heroes and The New Teacher Project (2023). Investigating the relationship between pre-pandemic family engagement and student and school outcomes.
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25 % Schools with stronger family engagement had
student attendance rates that were 25 percent better. 1
capacity to build strong, trusting partnerships with families has a huge return. Elevating staff
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Scholastic provided customized professional development , laying the foundation that parent and family engagement is an instructional strategy. In addition, they provided an ongoing support system fostering reflection of practice as well as implementation of new learning by providing individualized coaching.
— Margo Vogelpohl, Director, Title I and Prekindergarten Programs, Round Rock Independent School District
OUTCOMES
1 Misconceptions about the importance of attending school are mitigated.
2 Negative perceptions a caregiver may have about education from their own experiences are replaced with positive ones.
3 Trusting, productive relationships are established and grown.
4 Communication becomes two-way, with a focus on academic outcomes.
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Empowering families with the knowledge, resources, and confidence to advocate for their child’s learning can significantly increase academic outcomes.
OUTCOMES
1 Families build a deeper understanding of the critical role they play in driving academic outcomes and the importance of attending school regularly. 2 Families learn specifically how to reinforce what is being taught in the classroom and incorporate reading into their daily lives.
3 Families are provided the resources to extend learning outside the classroom.
4 Families understand the value that reading, conversations, and storytelling play in building their child’s knowledge and language skills.
5 Families develop strong and sustained relationships within their school.
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Families are learning and having critical conversations about things that they can do to not only supplement what their children are learning in school, but how to be a part of the academic process with their child . — Jessica V. Dreher, Ed.D., Director of Student Services, Thomasville City Schools
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Welcoming and engaging all
students and their families begins with creating inviting and responsive learning environments.
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The protagonist in every story [in the Rising Voices: Empowering Girls in STEAM Library] is a girl or a woman. I think that’s great, because it gives the girls a feeling of pride and it also encourages them in knowing that they can do any and everything . — Dr. Emma Epps, NABSEF Chair, retired Superintendent, Ecorse Public Schools, Ecorse, MI
OUTCOMES
1 Students perceive their classrooms as more inviting, relatable, and engaging.
2 Educators are supported with the resources that make the classroom more welcoming and instruction more culturally relevant.
3 Classrooms become more positive, empathetic, and productive environments.
4 Students improve as readers when given the opportunity to choose from books that include a range of diverse storylines, characters, or settings.
5 Students improve attitudes, behavior, and relationships with peers and teachers.
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The R.E.A.L. program has shifted the culture in the classroom. The volunteers bring fresh energy, patience, and enthusiasm to our school. Our students enjoy the read-alouds and the teachers enjoy a break, which helps manage burnout. — Phyllis McKissack, Family Resource Coordinator, Harrison Elementary School, Lexington, KY
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Partnering with the community and organizations expands your literacy and responsive instruction capacity.
OUTCOMES
1 Students are provided with more opportunities to make meaningful connections with adults in the community at school as literacy partners. 2 Through embedded dialogic strategies, volunteers help students improve their relationship with reading through interactive read-alouds, modeling by adults, and literacy-focused mentoring.
3 Students display improved cognitive, social, emotional, and academic skills.
4 Students become more deeply engaged in reading—in and out of the classroom.
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How we know this approach works.
We collaborated with Camden City Schools to create a comprehensive approach to connecting the classroom, families, and community to create a literacy ecosystem in which all feel seen, heard, and valued.
CASE STUDY AT A GLANCE
district : Camden City Schools district goal : Increase student enrollment and decrease chronic absenteeism
54% Latino 43% Black 1% White 2% Other
17 Schools
6,956 Students
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
• Professional learning for educators and family operations coordinators • Ongoing support for district and school leaders and family operations coordinators • Asynchronous grade-specific professional development for teachers • In-person and virtual learning sessions for families and community members
Read the full case study at scholastic.com/research
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OUTCOMES
1. Volunteer community mentors forged strong, trusting relationships with students centered around literacy. 2. Students grew more engaged in and excited about their learning. 3. Students reported a stronger sense of belonging at school. 4. School staff saw increased engagement and cross-divisional collaboration among their peers. 5. Students and families expanded their access to books and learning resources.
READ-ALOUDS DRIVE ENGAGEMENT How engaged were your students during the mentor read-alouds?
Engaged
Extremely/Very Engaged (70.6%) Engaged (11.8%) Somewhat Engaged (5.9%)
Extremely/Very Engaged
I’m Not Sure (5.9%) Not Engaged (5.9%)
Studies consistently demonstrate a strong positive relationship between engagement and performance across diverse populations. 1 Schools in the top quartile of student engagement had a 170% higher rate of students exceeding progress in reading than students in the bottom quartile. 2
SCHOLASTIC SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES USED IN CAMDEN
ELEVATE STAFF • Professional Learning Family and Community Engagement Best Practices • Professional Learning Product Implementation
EMPOWER FAMILIES • My Books Every Day • School Success and School Readiness Kits
WELCOME AND ENGAGE ALL • Scholastic Literacy Pro • Rising Voices
PARTNER WITH COMMUNITY • Scholastic R.E.A.L. • Scholastic
Literacy Events
1. Marks, H. M. (2000). Student engagement in instructional activity: Patterns in the elementary, middle, and high school years. American Educational Research Journal . 2. Gallup (2019). Engagement and Hope Positively Influence Student Outcomes, key findings from Gallup’s Student Poll.
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Solutions and Services
ELEVATE STAFF
pp. 10–11
SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES
DESCRIPTION
Consultative Planning and Coaching
We partner with district leaders to create a shared vision and strategic plan that integrates family engagement as a core strategy for improving student achievement. Through this collaborative process, we measure your school’s capacity to foster effective home-school partnerships. We provide insights and tailored recommendations to strengthen and prioritize family engagement practices. Explore family engagement core beliefs, review current practices, and develop a plan to build relational trust, create a welcoming environment, and engage families as valued learning partners. Our professional development offerings are designed to meet you at your current stage, whether you’re starting to build strong home-school connections or looking to deepen and enhance your existing efforts. We have a range of topics including, but not limited to: building foundational practices of family engagement, implementing capacity-building literacy events, and even increasing student attendance through fostering effective home-school partnerships.
Family Engagement Assessment
Dr. Karen L. Mapp’s Family Engagement Series
Family and Community Engagement Professional Learning Courses
EMPOWER FAMILIES
pp. 12–13
SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES
DESCRIPTION
Read and Rise
An event-based program that teaches families how to draw on their culture and strengths to support their child’s literacy growth.
My Books Every Day
A books-to-home literacy program that encourages a personal connection to reading, supports the Dual Capacity-Building Framework, and nurtures the relationship between families and schools.
School Readiness Kit
Bilingual English/Spanish kit with more than 80 activities and resources to help families prepare their children for kindergarten—both academically and socially.
School Success Kit
Bilingual English/Spanish kit encourages families to make learning a part of their daily routine. Books and activities support early reading instruction and home-to-school connection.
Grab and Go Take-Home Packs
Take-home book packs with literacy activities to build home libraries and keep students reading year-round.
Scholastic BookFlix
A unique paired fiction and nonfiction ebook library for PreK–3 kids.
Scholastic Teachables
An online hub of 30,000 ready-to-use printable learning resources for every subject and skill.
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WELCOME AND ENGAGE ALL
pp. 14–15
SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES
DESCRIPTION
Rising Voices
Classroom libraries and instructional resources comprised of authentic fiction and nonfiction texts that give context to today’s world while celebrating the stories of the historically underrepresented.
Our Stories Decodables
Culturally relevant decodable texts that celebrate diverse voices and elevate foundational skills through targeted phonics practice.
Scholastic Magazines+
Print and digital classroom magazines for every grade and subject engage students and build literacy skills.
Byron V. Garrett Life and Literacy Skills Library
Grade-level libraries for PreK–5 designed to integrate life and literacy skills lessons into whole-class, paired, and independent reading.
Culturally Responsive Collections
Each collection offers an authentic representation of diverse cultures and abilities—so every student gets to see themselves in the books they read while learning to understand and empathize with the experiences of others. A Teacher’s Guide accompanies each collection.
Scholastic Literacy Pro
A blended reading management tool and ebook library to motivate students, track reading gains, and inform instruction.
Our Community: Haitian Heritage
A collection of culturally affirming books in Haitian Creole/English and English that offers a wide range of stories celebrating Haitian experiences in Haiti and the United States. Also available as take-home book packs.
PARTNER WITH COMMUNITY
pp. 16–17
SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES
DESCRIPTION
Scholastic R.E.A.L.
A literacy-based, interactive read-aloud mentoring program that gives you everything you need to recruit and equip members of your community to support students’ academic success and build their home libraries.
Read and Rise
An event-based program that teaches families how to draw on their culture and strengths to support their child’s literacy growth.
Scholastic Literacy Events
Developed with Dr. Karen Mapp, these 90-minute activity event kits help educators empower families to extend learning at home with innovative reading and writing activities.
Getting Started with R.E.A.L.
Participants learn how to develop and maintain a year-long implementation plan for R.E.A.L., preparing them to support mentors, teachers, and families across the community.
Getting Started with Read and Rise
Participants learn how to use Read and Rise to raise awareness of the specific literacy needs of children from diverse backgrounds and celebrate the valuable assets that all families bring to educational spaces.
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Together, we can get every student here.
Connect with us to learn more at scholastic.com/engage
504-PR 10/24
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