This dissertation aims to elucidate the complexities of chronic absenteeism in Head Start Programs post-COVID-19 to enhance early childhood education practices and policies. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study investigates the causes of absenteeism by surveying and interviewing 50 participants from a Head Start Program in the New York…

This article reports on the development and initial psychometric properties of the School Interference Questionnaire (SIQ), a questionnaire designed to assess both academic functional impairment related to mental health problems and the type and frequency of school refusal behavior. Participants were 110 youth ages 13 to 18 years (M = 15.41 years,…

Background: While chronic absenteeism hurts all students, one particularly vulnerable group, students with disabilities (SWDs), has received little attention in research or policy. Particularly troubling is the dearth of research into the patterns of absences for SWDs and GENs who attend school together in urban school systems, given relatively…

Background: While chronic absenteeism hurts all students, one particularly vulnerable group, students with disabilities (SWDs), has received little attention in research or policy. Particularly troubling is the dearth of research into the patterns of absences for SWDs and GENs who attend school together in urban school systems, given relatively…

While the principal of a New York elementary school (P.S. 48) took on chronic absenteeism from 2011 to 2013, a research team at the Center for New York City Affairs followed her efforts. The school drove down chronic absenteeism almost 10 percentage points. School staff routinely touched base with students, outside "success mentors"…

A quality education that promotes learning among all students is a prerequisite for an economy that increases opportunity, prosperity, and growth. School accountability policies, in which school performance is evaluated based on identified metrics, have developed over the past few decades as a strategy central to assessing and achieving progress…

Chronic absence is a national crisis, dragging down achievement for students across the country. Attendance Works defines chronic absence as missing 10 percent or more of school days for any reason--excused or unexcused as well as suspensions. The purpose of this brief is examine the role of state policy and action in ensuring chronic absence is…

In this webinar, Dr. Charles Basch, Richard March Hoe Professor of Health and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, presented the causal connections between health factors and the motivation and ability to learn. This Q&A addressed the questions participants had for Dr. Basch following the webinar. The webinar recording and…

The purpose of this study was to examine transfer high schools within the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) and the instructional cultures developed by their principals. Transfer high schools reengage students who were previously truant and at risk of discontinuing their education. Four NYCDOE transfer high schools were studied…

(Purpose) This study contributes to the knowledge base about strategies for helping disconnected youth re-engage with schooling. The study presents findings of a rigorous impact evaluation of the Good Shepherd Services (GSS) Transfer School Model that is grounded in developmental theory positing that social and emotional factors are essential to…

Evaluates a program in the New York City schools that uses employment as a method of reducing absenteeism and truancy in the high schools. The program has met with a measure of success although results are not statistically significant. (Author/IRT)

The Attendance Improvement/Dropout Prevention (AI/DP) Program is an umbrella program serving high-risk students in New York City's public schools. This report focuses on the high school AI/DP program, serving mainly ninth and tenth grade students who met truancy and academic failure criteria. The three short-term program objectives were: (1)…

This study evaluates the process and procedures of the New York City Board of Education in the definition, identification, tracking, and monitoring of student dropouts in selected New York City high schools. The full report is organized in three parts. Part One provides a summary of data obtained (through observations and interviews) from visits…

There were three projects, funded under Urban Education auspices, carried out in various schools in District 15, Brooklyn, during the 1972-73 school year. The objectives of the Return to School program were to place students, who exhibited anti-social behavior or who were frequently truant, into special instructional units where their educational…

In 1987, the New York City Board of Education established the following three placement units responsible for improving school attendance and preventing dropping out among at-risk youth: (1) the Central Placement Unit (CPU); (2) the Persons In Need of Supervision (PINS) Diversion Unit; and (3) the Bronx District Attorney's Educational Outreach…