Arizona's kids are missing school far more than they were before COVID-19

Years after the onset of the pandemic, Arizona's elementary and middle schoolers are still missing class at much higher rates than before COVID-19 hit.

The percentage of students who were chronically absent — meaning they missed 10% or more of the school year, which translates to 18 days — was far higher last school year than it was during the years leading up to the pandemic.

According to the Arizona Department of Education, which collects data on chronic absenteeism among students in first through eighth grades, the chronic absenteeism rates during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years were around 12% and 13%, respectively.

But during the 2021-22 school year, the percentage of chronically absent students spiked to 32%. Last school year, it dropped to around 28% — still more than double the rate in the school year before the pandemic. The rates were even higher for Hispanic, Native American and special education students.

Arizona's experience mirrors a national trend. Chronic absenteeism has risen across the country in the years following the onset of COVID-19.

"It's been a really steady drumbeat of work to not make it seem as if school is optional," said Seth Aleshire, the chief academic officer of the Phoenix Elementary School District.

Some districts say they have become more proactive in addressing absenteeism. Rather than waiting for a student to hit the 18-day mark to intervene, district leaders start watching attendance from the first day of school.

In the Phoenix Elementary School District, if a student misses 10% of school days in August, they're flagged as chronically absent, Aleshire said. This will trigger a phone call and a letter to the student's family. That's a new approach as of the 2021-22 school year.

The Washington Elementary and Chandler Unified school districts also now have systems in place to intervene the moment a student has missed a certain percentage of school days, no matter how early it is in the school year.

Phoenix Elementary's data so far this school year shows steady improvement. Last school year, 36% of the district's students, including kindergarteners, were chronically absent, but with about two months left to go in the 2023-24 school year, 30% of kids are on track to be chronically absent.

The reasons why Arizona's kids are missing school at higher rates are varied and not always clear.

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In Washington Elementary, Rich Morris, an administrative coach, said that the reasons behind many absences are unreported. But among parents who do call in, sickness and mental health are common reasons cited, he said.

Aleshire, from Phoenix Elementary, said child care has been a "huge root cause" for absenteeism in the district — older students stay home to take care of siblings. Transportation is also a challenge, he said, and parents seem to be more inclined to keep kids home when they're sick. Teachers, too, seem to be more likely to stay home when they're sick, he said.

On the Monday after Easter, only five kindergarteners out of a class of around 25 students showed up to one of Phoenix Elementary's schools, which Aleshire attributed to families turning a three-day weekend into a longer vacation.

Much of the work to address absenteeism involves connecting families to needed resources, Aleshire said.

"Being a K-8 district, a lot of the issues that come with student attendance are family-based issues," he said. "The kids are not necessarily making the choice that they don't want to come to school."

Still, there are ways Phoenix Elementary tries to incentivize kids to show up, like making sure children have an advocate who checks in with them and recognizes when they are making an effort to get to school, Aleshire said. Similarly, celebrating students for their attendance achievements is part of the Alhambra Elementary and Washington Elementary school districts' strategies, where students are given awards for attendance.

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Missing too much school between kindergarten and third grade affects kids' ability to learn to read, Aleshire said, and at the eighth-grade level, affects students' preparedness for high school.

According to Hedy Chang, the executive director of the nonprofit Attendance Works, which works with schools and states across the country to curb chronic absenteeism, a high level of absenteeism affects even the kids who do show up because it hinders teachers' ability to teach and set classroom norms. Teachers having to frequently catch up different groups of students affects learning for the whole class, according to Attendance Works.

In Washington Elementary, part of addressing chronic absenteeism — which counts absences for any reason — involves addressing misconceptions among parents that "if they call in, it's an excused absence, everything's okay," Morris said.

Whether it's excused or unexcused, "all of those come together as chronic absenteeism," he said. "Those gaps in instruction, especially if you're missing a full day, they catch up."

To curb especially high numbers of absences during the month of December, Washington Elementary told families in September 2023 to send kids to school even with mild symptoms like a runny nose, a cough, a stomachache, a headache or a rash. It advised families when children should stay home, including when they have a high fever or have vomited within the last 24 hours. The district has also offered guidance to families on what to do if their child is missing school due to anxiety.

At the state level, there currently are not any resources or guidance about chronic absenteeism accessible to school districts, according to Lori Masseur, the director of early learning at Read On Arizona, which assembled a task force to address chronic absenteeism last year. The task force, which includes state agencies like the governor's office, is hoping to fill that gap.

In some Arizona school districts, student absences have gone from an issue dealt with by only a select few staff members to a concern that involves everyone from principals to teachers, to social workers. In Chandler Unified, social workers and counselors meet with families on a regular basis to address barriers to attendance, according to Leo Schlueter, an executive director of elementary education. Phoenix Elementary hired family and community engagement specialists for each of its schools to focus on attendance, parent education and community partnerships.

Morris, from Washington Elementary, said that teachers have "taken it upon themselves to make those phone calls, build those relationships, let kids know that when they're here, we celebrate them."

Chang, from Attendance Works, said that relationships are what bring kids to school. "What you really want to do when kids miss school is ... build a relationship so you can identify and understand what the barriers were," she said. Punitive measures, on the other hand, risk alienating a family even more, she said.

The most important intervention is that "people are paying attention," Aleshire said. "That it is on everyone's radar."

Reach the reporter at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona kids still missing school far more than before the pandemic