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Chronic Absenteeism

Missing 10% or more of school days in a year (approximately 18 days), regardless of whether absences are excused or unexcused, a metric tracked by most states as an indicator of student engagement.

Reviewed by OpenSchoolData Editorial Team

How It Works

Chronic absenteeism affects approximately 14-16% of students nationally, though rates spiked significantly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching over 25% in many states during the 2021-2022 school year. Unlike truancy, which counts only unexcused absences, chronic absenteeism includes all absences, recognizing that missing school for any reason, illness, family obligations, transportation barriers, suspensions, or disengagement, has the same impact on learning. The research on chronic absenteeism is clear: students who miss 10% or more of school days score significantly lower on assessments, are more likely to be retained in grade, and are at substantially higher risk of dropping out. In elementary school, chronic absenteeism is one of the earliest predictors of later academic failure and dropout. By sixth grade, chronic absenteeism is a stronger predictor of dropping out than test scores. Under ESSA, most states include chronic absenteeism as their "school quality" indicator in accountability systems. Effective interventions include early warning systems that flag students after a few absences, mentoring programs, removal of barriers (such as providing transportation or on-site health services), and parent outreach. On OpenSchoolData, chronic absenteeism data is displayed when available as part of the school context, helping parents understand engagement patterns alongside academic outcomes.

Related Terms

  • Dropout Rate, The percentage of students who leave school before earning a diploma or completing an equivalent program, measured as either an event rate (one year) or a status rate (cumulative).
  • School Accountability, The system by which schools and districts are held responsible for student outcomes, including state ratings, improvement plans, and potential interventions for chronically low-performing schools.
  • Graduation Rate, The percentage of students who earn a regular high school diploma within four years of entering ninth grade, calculated using the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) method required by federal law.

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Real federal data: NCES CCD enrollment (2022), EDFacts proficiency rates (2020, district-level), EDFacts graduation rates (2019, district-level).

About This Definition

This definition is part of the OpenSchoolData Education Glossary, 33 terms explaining how school performance data works in the United States. All definitions are written in plain language for parents, educators, journalists, and researchers.

Chronic Absenteeism is one of the U.S. K-12 school outcomes and enrollment concepts that recurs across this site. The definition above is the technical answer; the paragraphs below add the practical context for how the concept connects to the NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts data behind every per-entity page on the site.

In the NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts data, this concept shapes one or more of the fields that drive the per-entity grades and rankings on this site. The methodology page describes which fields feed into which output; this glossary entry documents the underlying term.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2026.