Early Grades Are New Front in Absenteeism Wars

School aide Maria Figueroa, left, talks with students as they arrive late to PS 61 Francisco Oller School in New York City, where officials have launched an all-out assault on chronic absenteeism. Statistics are beginning to show that absentee rates in kindergarten and 1st grade rival those in high school students.

—Emile Wamsteker for Education Week

By Sarah D. Sparks

While many think of chronic absenteeism as a secondary school problem, research is beginning to suggest that the start of elementary school is the critical time to prevent truancy—particularly as those programs become more academic.

“Early attendance is essential; this is where you really want to work on them,” said Kim Nauer, the education project director at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School , which studies attendance issues. “By the time you get to 5th or 6th grade, you can really get a cascade effect that you can’t recover from. How much money do we spend in a school system on all of this recuperative stuff in high school—getting the kid back and re-engaged—as opposed to making sure the kids don’t slip off in elementary school?”

Yet 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 10 percent or more of school. That’s about 18 days in a normal 180-day year, according to the San Francisco-based Attendance Counts, the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation ...