Nearly one-quarter (23%) of school districts surveyed said none of the strategies adopted to fight chronic absenteeism have been particularly effective, according to an analysis of data published by Rand Corp. and the Center on Reinventing Public Education, K-12 Dive reported.
One possible explanation, according to interviews with district leaders, is that a profound cultural shift occurred during school closures, in which students and families began to see school attendance as less significant.
Nearly all school districts surveyed (93%) for the analysis said they used at least one approach to combat chronic absenteeism last school year, with schools most commonly using an early warning system to flag students at risk of being chronically absent. Home visits and calls after a number of absences were among common practices.
Districts reported varying degrees of success with each intervention, leading researchers to theorize that either no method was truly effective or that any one approach was related to the efficacy of all the other methods.
“Nevertheless, the low proportion of districts that identified one of their own approaches as the most effective at reducing absences indicates that absences are a stubborn problem that is not easily solved by any one intervention alone,” the report said.