States, districts and schools are now being offered unprecedented opportunities to develop programs that will improve student performance and turn around underperforming schools. An understanding of how reducing chronic early absence helps those efforts will go a long way to assure that innovative school improvement policies and practices will be…

The importance of school attendance in relation to achievement, engagement, and educational success has been well researched and documented. As a result, the general philosophy is that the more time students are in school, the better chance they have to be personally and academically successful. Students miss school for myriad reasons. While some…