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Last spring, Alabama鈥檚 DeKalb County Schools invited local physicians to lunch. The reason: Too many students were missing school for doctors鈥� visits, even if they had nothing more than a cough or the sniffles.

Their absences were excused, but still contributed to a chronic absenteeism problem that the district, like those across the country, has been trying to solve since the end of the pandemic. Some DeKalb students had as many as 25 visits to the doctor in a school year. Students are considered chronically absent when they have at least 18 absences, about 10% of the year.

鈥淭hey never would show up in our truancy dashboard because they might be great at turning in doctor’s notes,鈥� said Nicole Carroll, principal at Henagar Junior High School, east of Huntsville. 

Doctors are now more mindful of trying to schedule appointments around school hours, said Jason Mayfield, the district鈥檚 instructional supervisor. And it’s one of the reasons Alabama is closer than any other state to reducing chronic absenteeism back to pre-pandemic levels. 

鈥淲e really need to take a moon leap on attendance,鈥� state Superintendent last summer.聽鈥淲e need to see dramatic improvements, especially in our high poverty communities, so that we can get back to where we were before the pandemic and then work to get even better than that.鈥�

Statewide, 12% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25, six percentage points below the peak of 18% in 2022 and just a point higher than it was in 2018-19.

Other states still have a long way to go. 

New Mexico, where some districts to track absenteeism and alert parents when their kids are not in school, made for two straight years. But last year, the rate jumped again from 30% to 33%.聽Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia also still have rates above 30%, according to a maintained by the conservative American Enterprise Institute.聽

Progress is 鈥渁ll over the map,鈥� said Nat Malkus, AEI鈥檚 deputy director of education policy studies. It鈥檚 unlikely for states to see large declines in chronic absenteeism like some did after schools fully reopened, but the 鈥渄anger sign鈥� is that the pace of recovery is slowing, he said. States and districts are tackling the problem in different ways, but Malkus is among those who think the federal government should provide some leadership to keep schools moving in the right direction. 

鈥淭hey have a powerful megaphone and the nation鈥檚 data,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey should be using both to push this fixable and pervasive issue to the top of the agenda, signaling to states, schools and families that getting kids back to class regularly is a non-negotiable priority for America鈥檚 schools.鈥�

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has voiced support for state efforts to improve reading performance 鈥� a top bipartisan goal considering historic drops in national test scores. But she hasn鈥檛 given the same attention to the persistent chronic absenteeism crisis. 

With 40 states and the District of Columbia reporting 2025 data so far, the rate stands at 23%, down a percentage point from the year before, but still well above the pre-pandemic level of 15%. A last summer showed that roughly half of urban districts are still battling rates . 

Both have committed to cutting chronic absenteeism in half over a five-year period. States vary in how they count attendance, but rates declined in 12 states participating in the challenge in 2025. In the other five and D.C., chronic absenteeism either increased or remained flat. 

A need for better data

There are emerging signs that chronic absenteeism is on the department鈥檚 radar. Its has held eight focus groups on the issue of chronic absenteeism since mid-December. The goal is to 鈥渋dentify and explore innovative strategies to address chronic absenteeism,鈥� said Savannah Newhouse, the department鈥檚 press secretary. 

The conversations focused on 鈥渞oot causes鈥� and effective strategies, said Hedy Chang, CEO of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that has brought national awareness to how high daily attendance rates can hide the fact that some students might be accumulating dozens of absences. A member of her team participated in one of the groups.

Malkus isn鈥檛 the only expert who would like to see the Trump administration step up. 

鈥淎t the end of the day, no instructional strategy or reform effort will work if students aren鈥檛 there to benefit from it,鈥� said Bella DiMarco, a senior policy analyst at , a think tank at Georgetown University. 

The federal government, she said, could improve the transparency and quality of data. While most states have posted their 2024-25 numbers, official federal reports are often a year or more behind. 鈥淪tates and districts need timely, actionable attendance data so they can intervene early, not reports that arrive too late to inform decisions.鈥�

The department could in turn encourage states to publish timely absenteeism data, like and already do, said Danyela Egorov, a fellow at the conservative . The secretary could also highlight strategies from districts that have been successful in bringing chronic absenteeism down, Egorov said.

The DeKalb schools in Alabama shifted from a punitive approach focused on truancy to one that encompasses excused absences as well. Leaders moved 鈥渆arly warning鈥� meetings with parents from the courthouse to schools to make them less threatening. 

Their 鈥淔lip the Dip鈥� campaign makes liberal use of attendance incentives for students and teachers, like gift cards and a Nintendo Switch. And every nine weeks, schools recognize kids for missing four days or fewer instead of celebrating only perfect attendance.

鈥淭hat way, they don’t just give up,鈥� said Carroll, Henagar Junior High鈥檚 principal. 

Since 2022, the district鈥檚 rate has dropped from over 19% to 10%.

鈥楪et them there first鈥�

Some say actions by the Trump administration are actually hurting educators鈥� efforts to lower chronic absenteeism, a data point that the to rate school performance.

In terminating government contracts, the department ended work on about聽effective ways to reduce chronic absenteeism.聽聽

鈥淭he team working on that had already sifted through over 2,000 studies on ways to address chronic absence and narrowed that to about 150 to 200,鈥� said Kevin Gee, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, who was among those on the project. 鈥淗ad it not been cancelled, the guide would have been made available for districts to use this month.鈥�

Immigration raids are leading parents to keep children home. In California鈥檚 Central Valley, enforcement action coincided with in daily absences, especially among young students, according to an analysis by Stanford University researcher Thomas Dee.  

Others point to McMahon鈥檚 decision in December to cut off 18 grantees that were still expecting at least two years of federal funding, comprising roughly $60 million, for . The model targets high-poverty areas and uses schools as hubs for a variety of services, from mentoring and mental health support to food banks and housing assistance. Recent research shows the approach has been linked to declines in chronic absenteeism in and . 

The Education Department is in negotiations with who sued over the loss of funds. But others wonder how they鈥檒l keep the work going. 

The Prichard Committee, a Kentucky nonprofit, was still expecting roughly $18 million to serve 40 districts when the department canceled the remainder of its grant. Schools that are part of the initiative have seen decreases in chronic absenteeism of at least 2%, higher than the rate of decline statewide. At Danville High School, southwest of Lexington, the rate fell from 45% in 2023-24 to 32% the next year. 

At Reidland Elementary in McCracken County, the funds paid for family literacy events and backpacks to incoming kindergartners stocked with early reading and math materials.

The grant also supported a teacher who works one-on-one with kindergartners who are behind in reading and math. But now, the principal will have to find another way to pay for the position. Lisa McKinney, communications director at Prichard, said it鈥檚 hard for students to overcome gaps if they鈥檙e missing too much school.

鈥淲e want everyone to read and write on grade level,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut you鈥檝e got to get them there first.鈥�

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