School absences have long-term impacts on student outcomes. Chronic absenteeism rates in California remain stubbornly high, despite recent improvements. Chronic absenteeism varies widely across student demographic groups. Chronic absenteeism can affect district resources and students' access to school services. Addressing absenteeism will require…

Recent research has shown the ways in which immigration enforcement actions can affect educational outcomes for all students, regardless of their immigrant status. One consequence of particular concern is student absenteeism, a non-academic indicator used by 37 states to evaluate school success under the Every Student Succeeds Act. However,…

Student absenteeism is a persistent concern in K-12 education. Not only are the negative academic and social consequences of excessive absenteeism well documented, but states, districts, and schools are increasingly being held accountable for student attendance. As research indicates that disruptions in students' learning contexts may exacerbate…

Education researchers and the US Department of Education interpret chronic absentee data as supporting a causal relationship between absenteeism and negative outcomes later in life (Frydenlund, 2022; Berkowitz et al., 2017; Hopson & Lee, 2011; Thapa et al., 2013). As school absence rates continue to reflect disparities among students of color…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a predictive relationship between the number of years a student is enrolled in an elementary school with a campus-wide character education program (CWCEP) and their academic achievement, attendance, and behavior during their high school years. This study examined whether students enrolled in…

Long-term English Learners (LTELs) are the largest population of English learners (ELs) in secondary grades. In California, approximately 30 percent of these students are dual- identified, meaning they are identified as having a disability and being an EL, with a historical overrepresentation in the learning disability (LD) category. Despite the…

This article used a rich longitudinal data set from four school districts in California to study absenteeism patterns among students classified as an English learner (EL). We looked at absence patterns overall and disaggregated by EL classification, grade level, and pre/post COVID-19. When their demographic and school-level factors are considered,…

Acknowledging the importance of students simply being in school, California has made student attendance part of its accountability system. This brief covers a session in which it was pointed out that using chronic absenteeism as an accountability measure is new and its underlying causes are not well understood. Even as many schools face the…

The annual assignment of elementary students from one classroom to the next is a ubiquitous cycle in schools. Since student class assignment has an effect on students' educational trajectory, understanding how placement procedures impact student equity is an important area of research with benefits for all stakeholders. In this action research…

Background: Asthma is epidemic in many locations in the United States. Asthma exacerbations pose serious health and education risks for students through school absences, school dropout, and introduction to the juvenile justice system. Accurate school district-level asthma data, currently in short supply, would enable early interventions that focus…

Between the 2020-21 and 2022-23 school years, the number of students experiencing homelessness increased by 25 percent, to 1.4 million. With $800 million in pandemic relief funds, Congress in 2021 supplemented traditional funding for these students. States were to spend their allocations by January 31, 2025. To make informed choices going forward,…

A crucial first step to academic success is being present at school and ready to learn. This is a particular challenge for students in foster care, who experience considerable home placement and school instability. Missing school for any reason impacts youth's engagement with learning and their ability to do well in school. Chronic absence rates…

Attendance in kindergarten and elementary school robustly predicts student outcomes. Despite this well-documented association, there is little experimental research on how to reduce absenteeism in the early grades. This paper presents results from a randomized field experiment in 10 school districts evaluating the impact of a low-cost,…

School leaders react to inappropriate behaviors by excluding students, despite research suggesting an association with poor student outcomes. Students with disabilities are frequently subjected to these practices. One framework that has been proposed to reduce the reliance on reactive discipline procedures is schoolwide positive behavior…

Teachers of color increase school success for students of color. Yet, little attention has been paid to whether school attendance behaviors also increase from same race and ethnicity matches. To address this, our study used administrative data provided by a California high school district for the school years 2014 to 2018. We explored student…