Although the average daily attendance rate for Tennessee students is 95 percent, almost 45,000, or 10 percent, of Tennessee K-3 students missed at least a month's worth of school days during the 2014-15 school year. These "chronically absent" students present a particular problem for schools that are charged with developing foundational literacy and numeracy skills, as missing so many days means an uphill battle to help students regain lost ground. Chronic absenteeism is a challenge faced by most Tennessee schools. In fact, the vast majority of the approximately 900 elementary schools in Tennessee have at least 5 percent chronically absent students. This report details the landscape of chronic absenteeism in the early grades of Tennessee public schools by documenting which students are most likely to be chronically absent and how chronic absenteeism relates to student achievement. Key findings include the following: (1) Almost all elementary schools serve chronically absent students, even schools with the highest average daily attendance rates; (2) Chronic absenteeism is particularly prevalent for economically disadvantaged students. Economically disadvantaged students are three times more likely to be chronically absent in elementary schools than their non-economically disadvantaged peers; (3) On average, by the end of third grade, a student who is chronically absent in kindergarten misses 80 days of school, while a student who is not chronically absent misses 30 days of school. This 50-day gap means that a chronically absent student misses more than a quarter of a school year more than his or her non-chronically absent peers over those first four years in public school--making it more difficult to help these students reach proficiency in the classroom; and (4) A student who is chronically absent in third grade is significantly less likely to be reading on grade level (as measured by the TCAP English language arts exam) than a demographically similar peer who is not chronically absent. The department hopes to shed light on this problem and provide information on identifying chronically absent students in order to target support and empower districts to address this critical challenge. Contains a section of available resources. [This report was written with support from the Research and Strategy Team in the Tennessee Department of Education's Division of Data and Research: Mary Batiwalla, Laura Booker, Lacey Hartigan, Nate Schwartz, and Zac Stone.]