By Forum Staff
Chronic absenteeism rates among New York public and charter school students increased sharply as schools transitioned back to in-person learning after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided and remained high with nearly one in three students habitually absent during the 2022-23 school year, according to a new report by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Chronic absenteeism is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as the share of students who miss at least 10 percent of days (typically 18) in a school year for any reason, excused, unexcused, or on disciplinary grounds. New York state excludes suspensions and extended medical absences from the state’s chronic absenteeism calculation.
DiNapoli’s report found during SY 2022-23:
- Large city public schools (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers) and charter schools had the greatest high school chronic absenteeism rates: 64.2 percent and 52.1 percent, respectively. These high schools also had the greatest increase in chronic absenteeism between SYs 2018-2019 and 2022-2023. New York City high schools had a 43.1 percent chronic absenteeism rate in SY 2022-2023.
- Chronic absenteeism rates are higher in high-need school districts than in low-need districts. High schools in high-need rural districts had a chronic absenteeism rate of 33 percent, a 10.1 point increase from SY 2018-2019, and high-need urban-suburban districts had a rate of 40.9 percent, an 8.6 point increase from SY 2018-2019. Low-need districts had a high school chronic absenteeism rate of 13.4 percent, a 4.9 point increase from SY 2018-2019.
- Racial disparities also impact chronic absenteeism rates. Asian or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander (21.3 percent) and White (24.7 percent) high school students have much lower chronic absenteeism rates than Hispanic or Latino students (43.7 percent) and Black or African American students (46.4 percent).
- Absenteeism rates are also higher among economically disadvantaged students, English language learners and students with disabilities. In the large city high schools, the SY 2022-2023 rate for these students was an alarming 71.2 percent.
New York’s public and charter schools were forced to quickly shift to remote learning when the pandemic affected daily life in March 2020, and through SY 2020-21. As a result, these school districts continued to utilize a mixture of remote, in-person and hybrid formats: 61 percent of students were fully remote, 38 percent were in-person, and 1 percent were hybrid. Chronic absenteeism increased to 24.1 percent in SY 2020-2021 from 18.6 percent in SY 2018-19. When fully in-person instruction returned in SY 2021-22, chronic absenteeism spiked further with 32.6 percent of students chronically absent—an increase of 14 percentage points from SY 2018-19.
While the public health emergency remained in effect, many school districts implemented restrictions preventing students who tested positive for COVID-19 from returning to school for a period of time. These restrictions likely had a significant bearing on the increase of chronic absenteeism rates. Rates improved in SY 2022-23 but remained significantly above pre-pandemic rates.
The State Department of Education has proposed eliminating the chronic absenteeism metric altogether in SY 2025-26 in favor of an attendance index rank metric. SED has also engaged as a partner with the Council on Children and Families, who launched the Every Student Present initiative, a public awareness campaign to help parents, school staff and communities understand the impact of chronic absence. SED has recommended that school districts reduce chronic absenteeism with expanding school breakfast programs as a means of getting students to school each day and on time, engaging in frequent and positive communications with parents and caregivers and recognizing good attendance and improvements in attendance, among other initiatives.
