Shedding Light on Gaps in Student Attendance Data

When campus leaders track the percentage of students who show up every day for the average daily attendance (ADA), they most likely also check for the percentage of students with a specified amount of unexcused absences - or chronic truancy.  

While most educators would tell you that these measurements shed light on the attendance crisis in our schools, this information still leaves gaps large enough for many students to fall through.

What are these gaps?  

In an article published by the Healthy School Campaign organization, the gaps are described in relation to the following important considerations and indicators:

ADA is about the average, not the student.
Research by Attendance Works, an initiative that promotes awareness of the important role school attendance plays in academic success, shows that even a school with a rate as high as 95% could have up to 30% of its students missing a full month of class each year. ADA does not take this into account.

Chronic truancy captures only part of the story.

While tracking unexcused absences is important, it ignores excused absences that still lead to missing important instructional time. Whether a student is missing school because of an asthma episode, is dealing with transitional housing issues, or is just playing hooky, the end result is the same: the student is missing out on opportunities to learn.  Read more.

Learn more about the work of the Collaborative and efforts being made to better integrate health and education policy. Also check out attendanceworks.org for more information on chronic absenteeism and efforts to address this issue.