社区黑料

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 社区黑料 Newsletter

Davenport, Iowa, superintendent TJ Schneckloth has an easy way of describing the impact of student absenteeism. 

鈥淭ake your favorite book,鈥� he said. 鈥淟et me rip one page out and it鈥檚 no longer your favorite book.鈥� The loss of knowledge and continuity mirrors what students face when they miss even a single day of school, he added. 

Yet after the pandemic, students who missed 10% of the school year 鈥� meaning more than one in four students were missing lots of key lessons, according to Nat Malkus, deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Student absences 鈥� spurred by trauma, remote learning, school closures and other factors 鈥� have stubbornly persisted long after the COVID shutdowns.

Prior to the pandemic, about 15% of students nationally missed at least 18 days of school each year, what is known as chronic absenteeism. The situation was serious but stable, said Malkus. But, in the 41 states Malkus monitors in his , chronic absenteeism soared post-pandemic, peaking at 28% in 2022 before dropping down to in 2024.

鈥淭he permission structure of when it鈥檚 OK to miss school loosened up,鈥� Malkus said, adding that schools now face the challenge of reversing ingrained behavior. 

One state that stands out for its progress in beating this trend is Iowa. It passed a wide-ranging that requires each school to notify parents if a child鈥檚 non-exempt absences hit 10% of a grading period, create a specific attendance plan for that student if missed days reach 15% and those absences are affecting academic progress and push the case to a county attorney for possible misdemeanor charges if a student misses 20% of school days. 

In just one year after the law was passed, chronic absenteeism in Iowa fell to just below 16% in 2024-25 from 21.6% in 2023-24. Over the last three years, the state has seen a in chronic absenteeism 鈥� significantly better than the 5.9 percentage point decrease seen nationwide during that time, Malkus said.聽

While the helped improve attendance, the state had been laying the groundwork for its battle against absenteeism years earlier, said Hedy Nai-Lin Chang, the CEO and president of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that partners with schools and states to improve attendance. In the 2023-24 school year, Iowa made chronic absenteeism one of its under the Every Student Succeeds Act, putting the issue on every district鈥檚 radar, she said. It also for every district in the state, adding statewide attendance data requirements starting in 2021-22. This data platform allows officials to track student progress in attendance, behavior and achievement either individually, for a school or an entire district. 

The state also began offering training to school personnel, including 鈥渋ntensive support鈥� that embeds attendance improvement teams in schools. It encourages building staff to 鈥渮ero in on barriers to attendance,鈥� such as specifically mentioning how food, clothing, communication, transportation or mental health issues could affect attendance, and how they should be considered in each case. 

鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 something we crafted out of thin air,鈥� said state Senator Lynn Evans. 鈥淲e looked at [the policies of] school districts that were good at [reducing] chronic absenteeism even before the pandemic.鈥� 

To allay any concerns about local control, the state ran the proposed laws past school officials and allowed schools to create their own specific plans, as long as certain benchmarks were followed, Evans added. One big change was how to count attendance; prior to the law, school districts were able to determine whether a student鈥檚 absence was exempt. Now the law lays out the specific exemptions, and absences for any other reason must count toward chronic absenteeism totals.

In Iowa, where the vast majority of districts are rural, building flexibility into the law was vital, said McKenzie Snow, the director of the state鈥檚 Department of Education. 

鈥楢ll hands on deck鈥�

Davenport, a city that borders both the Mississippi River and Illinois, is home to roughly 13,000 students. In 2021-22, its chronic absenteeism rate ballooned to 42.5%, but three years later it had fallen to 33.2%, according to data from Iowa鈥檚 Department of Education. That鈥檚 still one of the highest rates in the state, but Schneckloth said his district had tried everything from supplying families with alarm clocks to setting up ride shares to commissioning a new bus to serve an entire housing complex, even though the homes are just inside the district鈥檚 busing zone. 

The law is 鈥渓ike a snowplow out front鈥� of our efforts, the superintendent said.聽

Des Moines, the state鈥檚 biggest district with 29,700 students, uses 46 case managers to help with attendance, said Jennifer Stalder, who runs the district鈥檚 case management services program. are assigned to students and families based on absenteeism, behavior referrals or the student being disengaged from school. They help students and families address basic needs, social emotional wellness and health concerns, while supporting the family鈥檚 ability to advocate for their needs.  

Even though the district鈥檚 own policy is to notify families after just three absences, the 鈥渞eally clear guidelines鈥� from the state helped Des Moines send a straightforward message to school employees, families and students, she added. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no grey area.鈥�

Des Moines鈥櫬燾hronic absenteeism rate peaked at 45.4% in 2021-22, but that figure has fallen to 21.2% just three years later. Stalder says the district celebrates students who improve their attendance, rewarding them with extra recess time or by allowing them to be first in the lunch line even if their rate still lands them above 10%. They also host celebrations for classrooms, grade levels or the whole school when attendance improves. Students have been rewarded with everything from popsicle parties to smashing a pie in their principal鈥檚 face, school officials said.聽

The payoff has come not just in the form of better attendance, but in widespread academic gains as well, school officials said. In 2025, the district鈥檚 jumped 5%, while for everything from fourth grade English Language Arts proficiency to tenth grade math and science proficiency. 

In Cedar Rapids, where the chronic absenteeism rate for its roughly 15,000 students rose to 38.6% in 2021-22, three years later the rate has dropped to 27.8%. 

The state law helped the district go beyond tracking average daily attendance to digging deeper into why each student was missing school, said Jennifer Van Fleet, the district鈥檚 executive director of student services. Cedar Rapids has taken an 鈥渁ll hands on deck鈥� approach to absenteeism, she said, and is notifying families when students miss 5% of days.聽

In February, the district used an Olympic-themed campaign to encourage students to attend school. Offering prizes such as a weekly trophy for the best class attendance in a school and other rewards, the campaign was a great success. 鈥淚t was our best February since we started tracking,鈥� she said, with the district reaching pre-COVID attendance levels.聽

Involving the courts

While the state鈥檚 law seems to have helped push attendance in the right direction, one part of it has cultivated divisions: the mandate to notify county attorneys if a student鈥檚 non-exempt absences hit 20%. While some people feel that leveraging the legal system to crack down on student absences is the only way to get families to take truancy seriously, many consider it a controversial and ineffective approach, adding a legal burden to a family likely to be dealing with other issues as well.

The attorneys in Iowa have leeway to decide if parents or legal guardians should be charged. The penalties for a first offense could range from a simple misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $100 or 10 days in jail, or a civil penalty where the fine of between $100 and $1,000 would be paid to the student鈥檚 school district. The penalty for a second referral could result in up to 20 days in jail or a fine of up to $500. 

Davenport鈥檚 Schneckloth said the threat of legal action 鈥減erked up the ears of a lot of our families.鈥� But he did not provide any figures of how many cases his district has referred. 

Yet this same threat seemed to have no effect in Cedar Rapids, Van Fleet said. 鈥淭he punitive approach doesn鈥檛 seem to work for us ever.鈥�

Des Moines鈥� Stadler said the district referred 80 cases to attorneys last year and it only did so in the most extreme cases. 鈥淲e refer [parents or guardians] when they won鈥檛 engage with us, or they agree to a plan but then drop off. It鈥檚 never a surprise to any family,鈥� Stalder said. But before referring a case to attorneys for a second time, where the penalty would be more likely to result in jail time, 鈥淲e take a very, very big pause,鈥� she added.

Attendance Works鈥� Chang said the effectiveness of involving courts in truancy cases needs more research. 鈥淲e know prevention is more effective and less costly,鈥� she said. 鈥淟awyers are expensive and courts get overwhelmed.鈥� 

Of course, the ultimate goal of any attendance policy is to improve learning, said Evans, the Iowa senator. The state also now requires schools to reduce access to electronic devices during instructional time.  

In addition to improvements in attendance, the state has also seen , he said, with students鈥� reading scores increasing 11% from third grade to fourth and a 7% bump in science standardized test scores, according to data from the state鈥檚 education department.. 

鈥淭he longer we move down this line, the more acceptance it will gain,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淚t becomes part of the school culture.鈥� 

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 社区黑料鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.