As policymakers debate the merits of new tests and intervention strategies to improve student achievement, some districts are exploring a more basic warning sign: Are students even showing up? A growing consensus of research points to chronic absence--defined by the national policy group Attendance Counts as missing 10 percent of school or…

While efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism typically focus on adolescents, experts say that the early grades are the place to start. Statistics show that rates of absenteeism in kindergarten and 1st grade can rival those in high school. An average of one in 10 pupils in grades K-12 nationwide is considered chronically absent, defined as missing…

When Thomas B. Lockamy became the superintendent of the Savannah-Chatham County school system in Georgia three years ago, he did not set out to go after students who were missing too much school. While his initial focus was the reliability of data being collected at district schools, those concerns soon exposed a pattern of chronic absenteeism…