A Note from the Executive Director

Absences due to mental or physical health challenges are one of the most common reasons students miss school. We’re helping to launch a new perspective: seeing chronic absence as a public health challenge. Taking a public health approach will expand the pool of partners working to improve student attendance and engagement to include school health staff, pediatricians, local health clinics and children’s health-focused agencies and nonprofits. 

We were delighted to co-sponsor the one day event All in for Attendance. Developed with John Hopkins University School of Public Health and Kaiser Permanente, the summit brought together health-focused professionals to discuss a new public health framework for understanding and addressing chronic absence. The framework highlights real-world examples that illustrate how these principles can be put into practice including in Cincinnati, Baltimore and Oregon. Read our blog post and view the livestream of the summit’s morning plenary.

I’m honored to have been named District Administration’s Top 100 Innovators in Education for 2025 by District Administration magazine. I join other professionals who “represent the most important voices in K12 education” and are “improving outcomes for students across the country and around the world.” 

I truly appreciate your efforts this year to support student learning and development. Enjoy your summer break!

Warmly, 

Hedy Chang

Founder and Executive Director

Here Today, Ready for Tomorrow! This year we are making a special effort to lift up the opportunities regular school attendance provides that support student health and well-being. 

Check out AAC Webinar #2, Health, Well-being and Safety are Essential to Showing Up, which featured district and health leaders sharing how schools, health providers and other community partners can work as partners to promote health, well-being and safety at school. Read the webinar summary. 

Improving attendance requires messaging combined with a comprehensive, prevention-oriented, team-led approach. We’re pivoting the AAC this year to include actions everyone can take to support all students in school. Download and print the Five Key Actions & Messages For Educators and Partners.

The next AAC webinar, Student Connectedness Fosters Attendance and Engagement, features educators sharing their locally-tailored approaches for successfully reducing chronic absence, on August 6, 12pm-1:30pm PT / 3pm-4:30 pm ET. 

Webinar 4, Family Engagement is the Foundation for Attendance and Learning, is scheduled for September 24. Register for webinars 3 and 4!

Making recess more fun can improve student attendance as well as their academic achievement. Read Playworks’ blog post, How Play Fuels Academic Success.

Looking for simple games you can share with kids during recess, an afterschool program or at home? Check out Playwork’s list of 10 easy-to-lead games that can help kids of all ages get moving. 

Out-of-school time programs are often overlooked as a strategy to improve attendance during the school day. Read our commentary Out-of-School Programs’ Role in Reversing Chronic Absenteeism.

We were delighted to share how exploring root-causes and grounding your approach in family partnerships can reduce chronic absence, during the Education Week webinar, Moving the Needle on Attendance: What’s Working NOW. View the webinar.

State and district leaders in Colorado and Virginia are putting policies and practices in place that are making a measurable difference in ensuring students are in school. Read our success stories describing actions taken at the state and district-level in Colorado and Virginia. 

More middle and high school students across the country are on track to high school graduation as a result of implementing student success systems with GRAD Partnership support. During the first year of working with the GRAD Partnership to implement student success systems, schools, on average, saw an 18% decline in students failing one or more courses and a 12% decline in chronically absent students. Read the report.

The Attendance Works virtual three-part training series for educators is here to help. Registration is open for fall 2025 classes. Learn proven, evidence-based tiered strategies to engage students and families in improving attendance. Interested in a customized series for local participants? Contact us at help@attendanceworks.org.

We’re pleased to share our brief, More Essential Than Ever: States Taking Action To Improve Attendance, our annual examination of state attendance data, policy and practices. Findings include huge progress in states publishing chronic absence data on their websites (from one state in 2010 to 49 in 2025); accountability for chronic absence for schools remains widespread nine years after ESSA was signed into law; and 21 states offer guidance on adopting a comprehensive, prevention focused approach to addressing chronic absence.

Education researchers from schools across the country presented nine new studies on multiple aspects of chronic absence offering a current examination of the causes, effects, and patterns behind student absenteeism. Learn more and view the recording of Addressing the Attendance Crisis: New Research on Chronic Absenteeism Since the Pandemic. 

Chronic Absenteeism Is a Vital Sign for Kids’ Health. New Framework Seeks a Cure, The74, June 10, 2025

Chronic Absenteeism’s Post-COVID ‘New Normal’: Research Shows It Is More Common, More Extreme, The74, June 3, 2025

Attendance in School Districts Across U.S. Drops As Migrants Pull Kids Out in Fear of ICE Apprehension, The Latin Times, May 26, 2025

Curbing Chronic Absenteeism: How Alternative Student Transportation Makes a Difference, District Administration, May 28, 2025

Illinois House passes bill creating student chronic absence task force, 25News, May 23, 2025

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