
5/23/2026
Teaching Students Who Are Chronically Absent: What Actually Helps
Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% or more of the school year, affected roughly 26% of American students in the 2022-23 school year, nearly double the pre-pandemic rate. That means in a classroom of 30 students, an average of 7 or 8 are missing enough school to put them at measurable academic risk. For teachers, this creates a specific and underappreciated problem: how do you teach students who are regularly not there, and what can you actually do to change it?