About Attendance Counts

Attendance Counts is a national and state initiative that aims to ensure every school in every state not only tracks chronic absence data for individual students but also intervenes to help those children and schools.

Chronic absence is NOT the same thing as truancy!

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Why it Matters

Every year, one in 10 kindergarten and 1st grade students misses a month of school with excused and unexcused absences. By middle and high school, the rates of chronic absence are far higher.

Starting in kindergarten, these absences can affect academic achievement, especially for low-income students unable to make up for lost time, research shows. They can leave children unable to read well by the end of 3rd grade, exacerbating the achievement gap. And they can set a pattern of poor attendance and academic failure for older students, fueling the dropout rate.

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Featured Video

What Works

In Baltimore, students interviewed their classmates about why they attend school, and why they skip class, and created this video.

More About What Works