That’s according to Robert Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center and co-author of a new report that uncovers how fears of economic downturn due to global COVID shutdowns led to state and local policies that negatively impacted public schools.

The report documents school funding in states during the 2020-21 school year, the first complete school year after the COVID outbreak. The researchers found significant gaps in funding across states fueled by a lack of resources and policy decisions even in areas with sufficient fiscal capacity.

In response to the pandemic shutdown, state and local policymakers in many states in the spring of 2020 pulled back education funding. Some areas significantly cut state and local revenue for districts while others failed to provide planned funding increases. By 2021, at least 14 states reduced their total state and local funding for pre-K12 education, marking the largest “disinvestment” since the 2008 Great Recession.

For instance, states like Utah, Delaware and Minnesota’s per-pupil funding in high-poverty districts exceeded funding in low-poverty districts by 30% or more. In contrast, “regressive” states like Oregon and Nevada gave high-poverty districts 30% less per pupil than low-poverty states.

More from DA: Not all state education funding is easy to track down. Help is here

The researchers also documented the impact the pandemic had on public school funding by tracking changes in “fairness measures” between 2020 and 2021. Across the nation, pre-K12 education had the smallest annual increase in combined state and local funding yet, resulting in the largest number of states ever to have cut state and local revenue since the great recession.

States like New York and Vermont were recorded to have the highest cost-adjusted per-pupil funding in 2021, whereas states like Arizona and Idaho ranked the lowest at around $5,500 below the national average.

“History tells us that school funding can lag well behind financial recovery,” Danielle Farrie, ELC research director and co-author of the report, said in a statement. “Advocates and policymakers must make use of the current focus on student wellbeing to increase funding and ensure the necessary resources are available for students, no matter where they are located.”

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That’s according to the latest snapshot of global education in the Program for International Student Assessment, the first of its kind to analyze the academic profile of students in dozens of countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PISA test, administered in 2022, sampled 15-year-olds in 37 countries that are all members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, in addition to 44 other partnering nations.

There’s been an “unprecedented drop in performance” as average international math scores suffered the equivalent of some three-fourths of a year of learning, and another half a year for reading, the report found.

Countries like Germany and the Netherlands witnessed steep 20-plus point declines in math scores, which equates to about one year of learning.

As for the U.S., math scores seemed to be the area in which students were impacted the most. The data suggests a 13-point dip since 2018. For perspective, the average math score among all participating countries fell by nearly 15 points.

More from DA: Rankings: Virginia has the highest high school graduation rates in the country

Yet, America’s test scores reveal a glimmer of hope as students proved to have performed better than several participating countries post-pandemic. The good news: reading and science scores remained relatively even.

According to the researchers’ comparison, the U.S. moved up to No. 26 in math, which is up three spots from 2018. It ranked No. 6 for reading and No. 10 in science, a two and one spot bump, respectively.

“The whole world is struggling with math, and we are not immune from that,” said Peggy Carr, head of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the exam. “Everyone had struggles during the pandemic. What we’re seeing here is we had less.”

These findings ought to be familiar as educators are still processing the results of last year’s Nation’s Report Card administered by the National Assessment of Education Progress, which also uncovered a historic drop in U.S. math scores among 4th- and 8th-graders.

“The results … underscore the importance of instruction and the role of schools in both students’ academic growth and their overall well-being,” Carr said at the time. “It’s clear we all need to come together—policymakers and community leaders at every level—as partners in helping our educators, children and families succeed.”

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School districts must commit to spending their ARP funds by Sept. 30, 2024, which economists have labeled time and time again as “the bloodletting” as they anticipate major budget slashes, including significant staffing reductions as schools used these funds to bolster their workforce amid employee shortages.

This extension may prove beneficial for those who have yet to commit to spending the rest of their federal dollars, which is the case for most states. According to an analysis by FutureEd, states have spent on average 59.6% of their COVID relief funds. Some have spent less than 40%, including Wisconsin, which has only allocated 37.8%, the data suggests.

The Department’s guidance notes that districts submitting extension requests must make a case for how an extension would help support their mission to use such funds to tackle student academics and learning recovery. School systems will be required to submit requests through their state education agencies.

“The Department’s liquidation extension process for ARP ESSER and EANS funds, like the procedures that have been utilized by States for CARES and CRRSA funds, is designed to ensure that every possible resource is available to continue our collective work to address the pandemic’s impacts on our schools and students, in particular the urgent need to accelerate student learning,” the letter reads.

Once a request is approved, the affected schools will be allowed to spend their ARP funds 14 months beyond the Jan. 28, 2025 deadline.

Several education organizations, including The School Superintendents Association (AASA), applauded the Department’s decision to provide school systems with the flexibility to carefully plan out the last of their ARP spending. However, they voiced several concerns about how the process will play out over the coming months.

For instance, the sheer number of requests states will soon receive from their school districts may prove burdensome for states and the Education Department to review.

“For many states, this will be unmanageable for ARP ESSER,” AASA wrote. “Given the size of ARP ESSER, there are potentially thousands of transactions that would benefit from liquidation extensions.”

“[I]t would be helpful if ED would consider broader extension options as this puts a tremendous burden on both SEAs and LEAs in submitting requests,” they add.

More from DA: These 5 states boast the most Blue Ribbon Schools in 2023

They also worry that certain student support initiatives, including mental health resources and services, will not fit the criteria outlined by the Department. As mentioned previously, districts must prove an extension would help them continue the acceleration of academic success. Thus, posing the question, how do student mental health services factor into this equation?

“To me, that meant that continued mental health supports and services or any non-academic extensions would not be applicable for liquidation extensions nor would delays pertaining to the construction of new or improved facilities,” AASA wrote.

Advice for leaders

While your district may be eligible for an extension, it’s important to understand that how you spend your remaining funds may have a profound impact on long-term sustainability in some areas.

With this in mind, superintendents and administrators should take advantage of the variety of resources available to ensure your federal funds are used as efficiently as possible.

Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab has several blogs and webinars readily available to those wanting to get a better understanding of the K12 financial landscape. Here are a few resources to get you started:

• ESSER Expenditure Dashboard
• Resources for District Leaders
• 30-Minute Webinar Series
• 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Spending ESSER $s

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Multiple indicators show older students—especially those from historically marginalized groups—are less academically prepared for life after K12, experts at the Center on Reinventing Public Education (also known as CRPE) warn in their second annual “State of the American Student: Fall 2023” report released Wednesday. Here are a few key pieces of evidence:

• Course failure rates have increased sharply in high school with one large district (Houston) reporting more than 50% of high school students failed at least one class.
• Reading and math scores are steadily declining on Renaissance Star tests given widely to 10th graders.
• The Center’s experts are also seeing evidence of rising grade inflation as students’ letter grades are disproportionately higher than their test scores in the same subjects.

“The older the student, the more lingering the impact,” Gene Kerns, chief academic officer of Renaissance, told CRPE. “The high school data is very alarming. If you’re a junior in high school, you only have one more year. There’s a time clock on this.”

Rising and chronic absenteeism show student engagement is also decreasing. In Washington, D.C., chronic absenteeism soared from 29% pre-COVID to 48% in 2021-22. Detroit’s attendance rates fell from 82% in 2018-19 to 68% over the same time period. “Students in schools that closed the longest were more likely to disengage from school, drop out or stop attending school, and to experience anxiety and depression,” the researchers wrote in the report. “However, they were less likely to receive counseling and career support.”

The road ahead may get rockier for several reasons. First, the expiration of ESSER funding and decreasing enrollment will strain districts financially. CRPE is also warning about “system burnout” as administrators and teachers grapple with rising stress, political intrusions and staff shortages. “Although the pandemic has made innovation more imperative than ever, it will be understandably difficult for school leaders trying to keep their heads above water to simultaneously brainstorm new approaches,” CRPE asserts.

As automation and artificial intelligence disrupt the workforce, K12 schools and colleges will have to focus on helping students develop skills, such as empathy, creativity and flexibility “that only humans possess,” CRPE adds.

One in five students, meanwhile, gave their school a D or an F when asked about mental health support, individualized instruction, and excitement about learning, according to a 2023 Gallup poll. At the same time, teachers note much higher rates of stress among young people. “We not only owe (students) restitution for extended school closures and missed proms—we owe them a special sense of urgency, given how little time they have left before transitioning to the next phase of their lives,” the authors of the report write.

Bright spots in the State of the American Student

The “State of the American Student” contains reports from district and other experts on new approaches that “center instruction and support on what students need most.”

More from DA: 3 superintendents depart, a history-making hire and more relocations

There are positive signs in the growing number of schools that are adopting AI-based curriculums, offering more project-based learning, and expanding dual-enrollment programs. More districts are also providing competency-based education to pregnant, parenting, and underserved students, CRPE notes.

And Colorado and Virginia are among states that are developing plans for every high school student to graduate with an associate’s degree and an industry-recognized credential, which CRPE describes as “part of a deliberate strategy to blur the lines between high school and postsecondary success.”

“However, given the magnitude of the current crisis, we need many more such examples of hope and innovation,” CRPE’s researchers conclude.

The post “We are failing older students.” Are high schoolers running out of time? appeared first on District Administration.

KN95 masks were handed out and will be required for 10 days after at least three people at Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Montgomery County tested positive for COVID-19, WTOP reported. The decision, announced by the school’s principal on Tuesday, sparked anger online from far beyond the school community. The mini-mandate even drew the attention of Donald Trump Jr., who posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): “DO NOT COMPLY!!!”

DO NOT COMPLY!!! https://t.co/POMzCDxKvr

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 5, 2023

While Rosemary Hills appears to be the only school mandating masks this week, other districts are urging students and staff to take precautions as COVID cases rise. Talladega City Schools in Alabama posted a flyer to its Facebook page last week, urging the use of masks. “Please note this is not a mask mandate, but a general encouragement to be more conscious of our health,” the district noted on its Facebook post.

A middle school in Alabama’s Sumter County School District has been asking people to mask up since earlier this summer. “Due to the slow rise of Covid cases in the area, students, employees, and visitors are asked to wear facial masks starting Tuesday, August 22, 2023,” Kinterbish Junior High School wrote on Facebook.

New York on Tuesday began making rapid COVID test kits and masks available to school districts and educational co-ops in the wake of rising hospitalizations in the state.

COVID politics and school closures

A handful of districts have gone remote in recent weeks after experiencing COVID outbreaks. Butner Public Schools in Oklahoma was closed for virtual learning for two days last week after “the number of students & staff with confirmed COVID have reached a number where the safety of our students and staff is our most important concern,” the district said on its Facebook page.

More from DA: 2 more superintendents quit as several leaders switch school districts

Several districts in Kentucky closed temporarily late last month.

But state officials elsewhere are vowing never to return to mask mandates or school closures. Also on X, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said her state will “never lockdown.” That means schools will not close nor will masks or vaccinations be required. Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also boasted in recent days that mask mandates are banned in his state.

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Scrutinizing public schools—and the tax revenues they spend—is a healthy component of any community. But it’s clear that K12 has landed in a far more politically fraught environment than existed just a few years ago, says Rikli, who earlier this summer became the first Papillion La Vista leader to be named Nebraska’s superintendent of the year.

“We went from, during the pandemic, where teachers were heroes—these were people who were serving kids, who were out in front of our schools handing out meals, they were donating clothes to vulnerable families, they were doing whatever needed to be done to support our community,” he says. “You go from that to an environment where, now, in some circles, teachers and educators are being vilified—we are indoctrinators, we are groomers, we are brainwashers.”

The swing from one extreme to the other is exacerbating staff recruitment and retention problems, “which are very real,” he explains. “When our staff constantly hear a narrative in the national and local media that teachers are villains, that they’re lazy, that they’re somehow in this business to hurt kids, that’s an issue we have to address if we’re going to continue to push forward and support families.”

Papillion La Vista’s road to recovery

But politics aren’t dampening Rikli’s excitement for the new school year. His suburban Omaha district serves about 12,000 students, with a large military presence, and the community is now finding its footing and a renewed sense of normalcy after the pandemic.

“There’s just something magical about bringing our staff back and bringing our students back and getting kids and fam back into a routine,” says Rikli, who has been the district’s superintendent for 11 years. “We’re also excited about having a second continuous year being out of the pandemic. It’s starting to feel like things are starting to stabilize.”

He and his team of educators remain as focused as ever on helping students recover academically and social-emotionally from COVID’s disruptions even though Nebraska’s schools remained open for much of the pandemic. Teachers have embedded social-emotional learning into everyday instructional time, particularly in Papillion La Vista’s middle and elementary schools.

“Teachers can teach many lessons—not for purposes of indoctrinating but for purposes of teaching life skills, like hope, like empathy, like collaboration, like how to be a good human being,” he points out. “We have vulnerable kids, we have fragile families where they’re living hand to mouth and they’re just doing their best to survive. So we do have to step in and do things that in some circles might be considered outside the purview of public education.”

Papillion La Vista staffs five social workers and provides space in its building for outside mental health practitioners to offer convenient, on-site treatment to students and families. “We’re out of the pandemic, there’s still a lot of challenges,” he explains. “If there is a student who has depression, who has anxiety, who has some unmet mental health need, we want to make access to professionals as easy as possible.”

Getting past the politics

When asked about his leadership style, Rikli immediately responds that he feels blessed to work with an outstanding leadership team. Rikli would want Papillion La Vista’s assistant superintendents, directors and principals to say he leads by example and that he doesn’t ask his staff to do things he’s not willing to do himself.

More from DA: How one state is taking on the ‘forced outing’ of transgender students

“I would hope they would say Andy is the kind of leader who surrounds himself with really good people, people who bring skills and talents and experiences that compliment him—in some cases skills and talents and experiences that I just don’t have,” he continues “As leaders, we can’t be afraid to hire people who are more talented than we are and get out of their way and let them do their jobs.”

Transparency is one way he hopes to overcome the political divisiveness that is roiling districts in Nebraska and across the country. For instance, he recommends that leaders invite critics to serve on strategic planning committees. “There are individuals who are waiting for public education to stub their toes, they’re waiting for a misstep,” he contends. “If we don’t understand where some of the frustration is coming from, we’re missing an opportunity to learn.”

The most effective solution is for educators to be outstanding—not good, but outstanding at teaching and learning. “If we’re really really really good at meeting student needs and supporting families and showing our communities that we are partners, that we are there with them, that we are on the same team … if we’re all moving in the same direction with the same end results—that is stronger kids, stronger families, stronger communities—that’s really hard to disagree with,” he asserts.

But with teachers and leaders stuck in the crosshairs, it’s still important for K12 to confront individuals who do not value public education. “I hope the pendulum swings back to the middle, and I’m confident we can get there,” he concludes. “I think the vast majority of parents, taxpayers and empty nesters understand the value of public education.”

The post This superintendent wonders when educators stopped being viewed as heroes appeared first on District Administration.

Drops in attendance

Just nine days into the school year, the Lee County School District in Kentucky, which is home to nearly 900 students, reported a drop in attendance to 81%, NBC News reports. Fourteen staff members also called in sick.

In response, the district decided to cancel classes Tuesday and Wednesday and utilize remote instruction for the rest of the week. Extracurricular activities have also been canceled while staff conducts a deep clean of the schools.

“We’re sanitizing our buses and our buildings and giving our staff and our students time to heal,” Superintendent Earl Ray Schuler told NBC News.

Several other districts throughout the state have reported an uptick in cases this week, including Magoffin Couty Schools and Laurel County.

More from DA: 3 campus safety measures schools can use to tighten security

Earlier this month, health officials expressed concerns about what they believe will be an intense respiratory season this year. And for the first time, there will be three different vaccines for combating the three major respiratory viruses: the new COVID booster, the annual flu shot and two RSV vaccines for adults, according to NBC News.

“We are very, very concerned about the upcoming pan-respiratory season,” DR. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said during a recent media briefing.

A small district with few resources

Another small Texas school district was forced to cancel school until next Tuesday, citing a  “recent surge of positive COVID-19 cases within our district,” KENS 5 reports.

According to Runge ISD’s coronavirus tracker, which was last updated on Monday, 10 out of 43 staff members were infected, in addition to the district’s superintendent, Hector O. Dominguez Jr.

“On Saturday afternoon I began to receive calls,” he told KENS 5. “I tested myself with my physician, and I too tested positive for COVID. We’re a very small school district, so we don’t have the resources another, larger district would have to cover classes.”

“No parties”

Similar fears are also causing leaders in higher ed to reinstate certain mandates to mitigate the spread of COVID. Morris Brown College in Atlanta this week announced that a mask mandate will be in place for two weeks due to an uptick in COVID cases among students. According to the college’s president, Kevin James, all students and staff members will be required to wear a mask.

“There will be no parties or large student events on campus for the next two weeks,” reads an announcement from the school.

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A post shared by Morris Brown College (@morrisbrownatl)

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“Time is running out to spend the unprecedented, one-time federal pandemic-relief funds—the deadline will happen around September 30, 2024,” a new research brief from The Education Trust reads. “Between now and then, there is an opportunity for families and education advocates to encourage their school district leaders to spend down and sustain investments that are successfully addressing educational inequities.”

To this end, district leaders can ensure that the last stages of their federal dollar spending are made in a way that ensures their district’s sustainability and equitable opportunity for their students. As the spending deadline quickly approaches, The Education Trust encourages leaders to ask themselves the following three questions:

1. How are district ESSER investments equitably addressing the unique needs of students in the district? Are students with the highest need getting access and seeing success?
2. What are the stated goals of district ESSER investments? Are these programs achieving goals? How do we know?
3. How do ESSER investments fit into districts’ overall strategy for addressing the needs of students?

Districts could face an estimated slash of $1,200 per student in the 2024-25 school year due to declining enrollment coupled with the end of ESSER funds, the report adds. As this school year gets underway, district leaders will have some tough choices to make to mitigate these damages. But how can you know whether your district is truly at risk?

More from DA: How your teachers are feeling about AI and their jobs this school year

In addition to this brief, Education Resource Strategies published a resource for leaders on how to assess their district’s risk of the upcoming fiscal cliff. After analyzing trends in ESSER spending in dozens of districts across the country, the researchers identified six key factors that may serve useful for district leaders wanting to determine whether their community is at risk. According to the brief, this is what K12 leaders need to reflect on ahead of September 2024.

1. How large were our ESSER allocations?

Larger districts received considerable amounts of ESSER funds. Its elimination will cause considerable changes to their overall financial picture, the brief declares.

2. Did we increase teacher salaries?

Many districts used this opportunity to invest in programs and initiatives to increase their recruitment and retention efforts. However, these districts will see their baseline operating costs increase, according to the brief.

“When it becomes more expensive for school districts to maintain their existing services, it becomes more difficult to find ways to reduce spending,” it reads.

3. Did we increase our staff?

Similar to raising teacher salaries, districts also used federal dollars to avoid eliminating school staff amid ongoing shortages. But how will they sustain these costs once ESSER funds are eliminated?

4. What were the changes in per-pupil funding?

“Districts receiving more per-pupil funding from the state or local levels will be more insulated from the effects of ESSER dollars going away,” the brief reads.

States like Tennessee, Maryland and Massachusetts, for example, have adjusted their formulas so that more money will be allocated to public school districts, especially those serving high-needs students. They’ll expect larger declines in revenue once ESSER expires.

“Districts whose state and local per-pupil funding levels remain similar to pre-pandemic baseline levels will have to make more significant reductions in spending or rely on reserves to maintain investments and smooth reductions in spending over time,” according to the brief.

5. Limited unrestricted fund balance

In some cases, school districts can carry forward unspent revenue as a fund balance, according to the report. But some districts have fewer limitations due to state or local regulations, also known as an “unrestricted” or “unassigned” fund balance.

Districts with fewer limitations will have more flexibility on how they spend down ESSER.

6. Unspent ESSER dollars

As the spending deadline nears, it will only become more difficult for districts to invest these funds in a way that’s both impactful for students and sustainable. While there are still ways to invest any remaining resources, those who have large amounts left to spend face a greater risk of facing an “unwelcome fiscal cliff.”

The post How to know if your district is at risk of the looming fiscal cliff appeared first on District Administration.

Those are just two of the ways school districts are using the three rounds of ESSER to provide fresh momentum to programs designed to boost achievement for English learners “beyond pandemic response,” according to new “Moving the Needle” research from the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute.

Many districts, however, invested ESSER funds in pre-pandemic initiatives that had not been as successful for English learners, write Migration Policy Institute researchers Julie Sugarman and Lorena Mancilla. “The question remains whether school districts will be able to sustain the new resources, programs, and outreach efforts once the ESSER funds, which are being disbursed through September 2024, are gone,” they attested. “Without sustained education investments, the effects of the pandemic on children’s educational progress will not wane.”

English learners & ESSER

ESSER funds are being spent to support English learners in four broad areas: academic recovery, social-emotional learning, student re-engagement and teacher retention and capacity. Here are some examples:

1. Academic recovery: Chicago Public Schools spent $2 million to expand summer programming for 9,000 students. The district also added to its tutoring programs, which have been shown to not only support language acquisition but also help English students build confidence and independence. Metro Nashville Public Schools, meanwhile, purchased new English language development software that covers curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

2. Social-emotional learning: Azusa USD in California has invested in Care Solace software to provide social-emotional and mental health assistance to district families. The software can be used to book appointments, contact a crisis hotline and speak with a “care companion” who helps families with insurance claims and find care providers.

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Metro Nashville Public Schools opened community support hubs in four high-need areas to connect students and families with social-emotional support and wraparound support services such as housing, food, technology and attendance assistance.

3. Student re-engagement: Chicago Public Schools developed a “prioritization index” that steered re-engagement efforts toward students most in need of individualized support. The district also hired about 500 outreach ambassadors to conduct home visits and organize youth activities. Other school districts have increased translation and interpretation services.

4. Teacher retention and capacity: Growing teachers’ multilingual abilities has been one target of ESSER funding in several districts. Illinois is awarding $4 million in grants to help more bilingual educators become certified. St. Paul Public Schools, for example, is using $1.9 million to support its coaching model that allows ESL and bilingual teachers to share best practices with general education teachers. The district is also forming partnerships with local universities to launch grow-your-own teacher certification programs for St. Paul’s non-teacher employees.

Regardless of the strategy, the researchers encourage district leaders to be gathering data to share best practices and determine whether programs for English learners are producing successful outcomes.

“The pandemic introduced new challenges in the classroom that in many ways escalated the importance of focusing attention on the nation’s 5 million ELs,” they concluded. “While ESSER funds provided school districts much-needed relief to address impacts directly associated with the pandemic, they also served to fill gaps due to historically inadequate funding for ELs and allowed districts to invest in resources and programs that were long overdue.”

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“Districts now have more staff than ever and fewer students,” Roza said during a webinar in June. “So what happens next? That’s an unusual place for us to be. We’re new to it. That means there are changes afoot.”

What should be no surprise to anyone is that the pandemic is what caused significant declines in student enrollment for many school districts. And the latest available data might help shed more light on the issue, which leaders should consider as they plan to use the last of their pandemic relief funds.

New research from Thomas Dee, an education professor at Stanford University, in partnership with the Associated Press, reveals just how severe chronic absenteeism levels were during the 2021-22 school year compared to 2018-19.

According to the data, chronic absenteeism levels (students who missed at least 10% of the school year) rose in every state. Nine states in particular (New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, California, Mississippi, Massachusetts Texas, Iowa and Connecticut) saw their chronic absenteeism rates double in 2021-22 compared to 2018-19. As Dee suggests in his research, this is due to a multitude of reasons.

“Between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years, U.S. public schools experienced historically unprecedented enrollment declines of 2.3 percent,” the research reads. “This decline, which varied considerably across states, was related to actors such as demographic change, a response to remote-only instruction, and a shift to private and homeschooling.”

More from DA: 3 takeaways from the White House’s first summit on K12’s ransomware crisis

Several states saw severe levels of chronic absenteeism during the pandemic, with nearly half of their students missing at least 10% of the school year. Alaska, for example, saw absenteeism rates rise from 29% in 2018-19 to 49% in 2021-22. Washington, D.C. followed quickly as levels reached 48% at its worst.

“The evidence presented here suggests the imperative both to understand the sources of the rise in chronic absenteeism and to address it with well-implements, evidence-based policies and practices,” reads Dee’s research. “Intervention studies suggest that chronic absenteeism can be reduced through both preventative school-wide efforts and more intensive and targeted initiatives that identify and support chronically absent students.”

Here’s a full look at the state-by-state data Dee compiled in his research (Note: some states were excluded due to missing data and varying definitions of chronic absenteeism):

Chronic absenteeism rates in 2021-22 vs. 2018-19

• Alaska (49%, +20%)
• District of Columbia (48%, +18%)
• New Mexico (40%, +22%)
• Michigan (36%, +19%)
• Oregon (36%, +16%)
• Nevada (36%, +17%)
• Colorado (36%, +13%)
• Arizona (34%, +21%)
• Rhode Island (34%, +15%)
• Washington (33%, +18%)
• New York (33%, +14%)
• Florida (32%, +12%)
• North Carolina (31%, +15%)
• Maryland (31%, +11%)
• Ohio (30%, +13%)
• California (30%, +18%)
• Illinois (30%, +12%)
• West Virginia (29%, +9%)
• Maine (28%, +11%)
• Mississippi (28%, +15%)
• Massachusetts (28%, +15%)
• Kentucky (28%, +10%)
• Utah (27%, +13%)
• Pennsylvania (26%, +11%)
• Arkansas (26%, +4%)
• Texas (26%, +15%)
• Iowa (26%, +13%)
• Delaware (25%, +12%)
• Georgia (24%, +11%)
• Nebraska (24%, +9%)
• Missouri (24%, +11%)
• Connecticut (24%, +14%)
• Wisconsin (23%, +10%)
• North Dakota (22%, +10%)
• South Dakota (22%, +8%)
• Indiana (21%, +10%)
• Idaho (21%, +10%)
• Tennessee (20%, +7%)
• Oklahoma (20%, +6%)
• New Jersey (18%, +7%)
• Alabama (18%, +7%)

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