A new state law to address chronic absenteeism requires notifying parents by certified letter if a student misses school for eight days in a semester. After additional absences, there must be an in-person meeting with a parent or guardian.
The most recent data shows absenteeism is remarkably widespread in Iowa schools. “The levels of chronic absence tend to be highest in the high school level and then middle school and then elementary,” said Common Good Iowa executive director Anne Discher, “but there’s no doubt that even at the elementary level we’re seeing high levels of chronic absence.”
Advocates of the new law say regular attendance at school is a habit that will carry over into adulthood and much of what happens in a classroom cannot be learned through make-up work. According to a national group called Attendance Works, one in four Iowa students were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year. Discher saod that means they missed 10% or more of school days, for any reason. “It could be sickness, it could be vacations, it could be any number of things,” Discher says, “but the idea is that when kids are absent for any reason, they’re not getting the instruction they need that day.”
Discher is hoping more recent data could show improvement, but she said some students just haven’t reconnected with school after the pandemic. “Certainly we would encourage districts to really start out with supportive techniques to really help reengage students in school,” Discher said.
For younger students, like kindergarteners, figuring out what’s happening with the parents is key, according to Discher. “It’s a school challenge and schools certainly have a responsibility, but it’s also like a broader community challenge around how well we’re supporting families,” Discher said. “There’s a place for community organizations and our broader human services and mental health and physical health systems as well.”
Discher has a child in a Des Moines high school and she said before school started the family of every incoming ninth grader was offered an in-home visit from someone on the school’s staff.
“There’s responding to families once chronic absence is already happening, but I think that sort of proactive approach has a lot to recommend for itself, too — building those ties,” Discher said. “We know what gets kids to school is that people notice, they have relationships with trusted adults, whether it’s a teacher or a staff member.”
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