Most high schools face the problem of the chronically absent student. In the fall of 1985, the Centennial Effective Schools Committee in Gresham, Oregon established a subcommittee to examine chronic absenteeism among its student body. The committee interviewed 50 students with a history of poor attendance and developed a profile of the typical high school student with serious attendance problems. The committee also examined available research on the subject of attendance, finding that low achievement correlated with chronic absenteeism. The committee then selected two goals for improving attendance among chronically absent students: to reduce chronic absenteeism without increasing the dropout rate, and to assist students through direct intervention to accept the relationship between attendance and achievement in school. This report contains the prescriptions adopted by the committee to meet these goals, a profile of students with chronic attendance problems, a set of chronic absentee narratives, and the chronic absentee survey questions along with responses from the 50 chronically absent students interviewed. (NB)