Apr 5, 2025 By Karen Mansfield 6 min read

Albert Gallatin Area School District Superintendent Christopher Pegg knows what happens when students miss class.

“Students who are chronically absent are always playing catchup. They are not receiving in-person classroom instruction and support, and it becomes difficult for those students to stay on track with their academics,” said Pegg. “Kids can’t learn if they’re not in school.”

Schools face numerous challenges today – staffing shortages, lack of funding, and a rise in student mental health issues – but they are grappling with another issue: chronic absenteeism.

Chronic absenteeism emerged as a serious issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. rate of chronic absenteeism reached about 31% in the 2021-22 school year, more than double pre-pandemic rates.

It remains stubbornly high, with 28% of students – roughly 1 in 4 – chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year, or approximately 18 days, in the 2022-23 school year.

According to DOE data, 20 states reported that more than 30% of their students missed at least three weeks of school in 2022-23. In Pennsylvania, 23% of students were chronically absent.

What concerns school leaders is that, years after COVID-19 upended education, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance.

According to studies by Rand Corp. and the Center on Reinventing Public Education, 1 in 10 districts had chronic absenteeism levels of 30% or more during the 2023-24 school year. Two in 10 districts reported 20 to 30% chronic absenteeism rates.

In the Central Greene School District, for example, 30% of Waynesburg Central junior and senior high school students and 23% of Waynesburg Central Elementary were chronically absent for the 2023-24 school year.

“The ( chronic absenteeism) rate has increased since the pandemic, with several contributing factors,” said Central Greene School District Superintendent Matt Blair.

Among them: illness and quarantine policies, lack of attendance enforcement, mental health challenges, and disruptions to academic routines that led to student disengagement from school..

“During the pandemic and the following years, attendance policies were not strictly enforced due to health and safety protocols. This shift made it more challenging to reestablish consistent attendance habits,” said Blair.

Local school officials said students who frequently miss school often fall behind in coursework, struggle to catch up, and face greater academic and social challenges.

“Regular school attendance is critical to academic success,” said Dr. Edward Zelich, superintendent of Charleroi Area School District. “Chronic absenteeism significantly increases the risk of dropping out. Research has shown that students who do not complete high school face reduced job prospects, lower lifetime earnings, and are more likely to encounter social and legal difficulties.”

The pandemic played a significant role in the explosion of chronic absenteeism, but other factors, including illness and chronic medical conditions, mental health issues, family instability, lack of motivation, and financial, transportation, and peer-related issues, have contributed.

In particular, mental health has emerged as a growing concern.

“Many students struggled with the transition back to in-person learning, leading to increased anxiety, depression, and school avoidance,” said Central Greene’s Blair.

School leaders are working to figure out ways to keep students in the classroom.

In response to the rise in chronic absenteeism, Charleroi hired an attendance officer at the start of the 2023-24 school year. The move has had an impact, Zelich said. The district reduced its chronic absenteeism rate from 25% in the 2022-23 school year to under 12% for the 2023-24 school year.

Gary Serock, attendance and truancy officer at Albert Gallatin, said the district has implemented strategies, ranging from hiring licensed therapists to address students’ mental health issues to launching incentive programs such as raffles, to encourage students to attend school regularly.

Locally, school districts are using internal supports, such as hiring social workers and counselors, and using Student Assistance Program (SAP) to assess student needs. They also are partnering with outside agencies to offer additional support services to students and families, to address barriers to attendance that students face, such as transportation and basic needs.

The districts also are utilizing Children and Youth Services truancy diversion programs.

One key to improving attendance, administrators say, is to establish relationships with students.

“We have focused on the importance of student connections at the school level,,” said Jennifer George, attendance and child accounting coordinator at Uniontown Area School District. “Building a relationship with the student, making a connection with the student, that is ultimately what makes a student want to be here.”

The school district has an attendance team in each school building that aims to build a rapport with families and the community.

“We’re making phone calls, sending letters, scheduling meetings. We’re looking at the whole student, what kind of barriers there are, what kinds of interventions we can do for them, what kind of agencies we can refer them to,” said George.

And, if efforts to get a student back in the classroom fail, a parent or guardian can be issued a citation for a summary offense.

“Citations are our last resort,” said George. “We don’t move to the punitive step unless there is absolutely no compliance and we’ve exhausted other avenues. We don’t want to be punitive, but at the end of the day, there’s a law we have to follow.”

In the Fort Cherry School District , the percentage of students who are chronically absent has increased by approximately 8% since before the pandemic, according to Superintendent Thomas Samosky.

“While our district had been facing attendance challenges since 2017, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly worsened the situation. This is a statewide and national issue, but one that we are taking very seriously at Fort Cherry,” said Samosky.

He said conversations with local business leaders have led to one common theme: the need to emphasize the importance of daily school attendance.

“Employers consistently express concern that consistent attendance and punctuality in school directly influence future workforce readiness. As a district, we are working to reinforce this message with students and families,” said Samosky.

Like other districts, Fort Cherry has adopted several proactive strategies. Among them is expanding after-school opportunities, including the Drone Academy, academic intervention programs, and a wider range of extracurricular activities to encourage students to get engaged.

“Daily attendance is foundational to academic success and the personal growth of our students,” said Samosky. “We are committed to supporting our students, partnering with families, and creating a school environment where all students feel valued, supported, and motivated to attend every day.”

Serock – who said Albert Gallatin’s attendance numbers are about 90% – is spending much of his time sharing his strategies for reducing chronic absentee rates with other Fayette County school districts.

And, Pegg and Serock find merit in partnering with other school districts, parents, community members and other stakeholders to craft absence-fighting strategies that will yield effective results.

“We’re trying to find ways to get these kids to come to school, whatever challenges they’re facing,” said Pegg.