A Note from the CEO

Absences due to mental or physical health challenges are one of the most common reasons students miss school. We’re continuing to support a new mind-set that regards chronic absence as a public health challenge. 

In May, we discussed Attendance as a Vital Sign at the IEL National Community Schools and Family Engagement conference. Listen to short interviews with health and attendance leaders from Long Beach Unified School District sharing their strategies to reduce health-related absences. 

Research about health issues and school absence is plentiful. More recently, an October 2025 study found that the most common reasons for missing school reported by students in Rhode Island were illness and lack of sleep. Separate research also released in winter 2025 showed that 71% of chronically absent students cited health as the reason.

This month, I was honored to participate in a webinar hosted by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) which described chronic absence as an issue affecting systems in many countries. OECD shared the report, Every Day Counts: Understanding, Preventing and Responding to School Attendance Problems, which shows that attendance is closely linked to students’ well-being, sense of belonging, health and mental health, family circumstances and other factors.

I appreciate your dedication to students and their families. Summer is upon us, and I hope you find time for some rest and relaxation!

Warmly,

Hedy N. Chang

Your Presence Matters! This year’s slogan lifts up our focus on nurturing student connectedness at school, which motivates showing up. School connectedness reflects students’ belief that peers and adults in the school support, value and care about their well-being and academic growth. It is an important protective factor that promotes the health and well-being of all students. 

Join us on August 5 for AAC Webinar #3, Create Community in the Fall. Speakers will focus on establishing trusted relationships among staff, students and families and promoting students’ healthy habits, learning and long-term success.

Webinars are on Wednesdays at 12-1:30pm PT / 3-4:30pm ET. Register for the remaining two webinars in this year’s four-part series.

Spread the word!

🙋‍♀️ Want to learn how relationships and belonging can help improve attendance? Join us and @attendanceworks on August 5 for the next AAC webinar. Listen to practical ideas for helping students feel more connected, engaged and ready to show up.

🔗 Sign up for this free webinar:

https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/ 

Support Attendance Awareness Campaign 2026 by adding a campaign badge to your email signature. Download the 2026 badge from the AAC website. Badges are now available in Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese!

A new toolkit from the Partnership for Student Success helps community school site coordinators and wrap-around support leads organize a layered approach to improving attendance, grounded in frameworks from Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center. 

Check out the recording of AAC 2025 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.

Don’t overlook our student and family handouts offering health-focused actions to improve attendance, including our most recent handout on managing chronic health conditions.

San Diego County Office of Education’s Improving Chronic Absence Network (ICAN) shows how schools can combine data with relationships to reduce chronic absence. The cohort-based program helps school teams use attendance data, training and coaching to identify what students and families need, strengthen connection and improve attendance outcomes.

Our Professional Leadership Attendance Network (PLAN) is designed to support district leaders responsible for improving attendance systems. PLAN is not a program — it’s a leadership approach that helps districts move beyond isolated initiatives. The next cohort begins January 20, 2027. For more information contact Lorri Hobson (Lorri@attendanceworks.org) and Zach Freeman (Zach@attendanceworks.org)

Registration for Fall 2026 national e-learning series is now open! This three-part e-training offers educators proven tiered strategies that promote attendance and engagement using a team approach.

We’re pleased to share our brief, Beyond the Roll Call: Reducing Chronic Absence Through State Action. This is our sixth annual report examining the progress on state attendance data, policy and practice, and it reveals a growing consensus among states throughout the country that reducing chronic absence requires access to actionable data and starts with prevention and relationship building. The results are based on a survey completed by 49 state education departments and Washington D.C. in spring 2026 and an examination of all state websites.

A new report from the Learning Policy Institute, The Principal Effect: How Investing in School Leaders Is Key to Solving Education’s Challenges, highlights the central role principals play in creating the conditions that help students learn and thrive. The report finds that effective principals can strengthen instruction, support teacher retention and build positive school climates that strongly influence student attendance and achievement.

A new study in Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, School Building Conditions and Chronic Absenteeism Within Socioeconomic Contexts: A Component-Level Statistical Analysis in New York State, finds that specific school building conditions are associated with chronic absence in New York public schools. The findings show that indoor air quality had the most impact, with indoor pesticide use and mold-susceptible ceiling materials linked to higher absenteeism. Recent renovations were associated with lower absenteeism.

A new working paper from Annenberg EdExchange finds that immigration enforcement actions cause a substantial and persistent increase in absences among foreign-born students. These findings have practical implications for schools operating in enforcement-active environments, the authors note. The persistence of attendance effects suggest that effective district responses require sustained engagement rather than action immediately after an enforcement events.

Data shows student chronic absenteeism is declining. The solutions are complex, ABCNews, June 4, 2026

Oklahoma schools beat national average in student attendance, report finds, Oklahoma Voice, June 3, 2026

1 in 5 students are chronically absent, analysis finds, K-12 Dive, June 4, 2026

Georgia’s leadership in lowering chronic absenteeism recognized through inclusion in new Attendance Works cohort, Grice Connect, June 4, 2026

Please donate to Attendance Works to support our work creating resources that help students show up to school every day possible.