One in five students in Texas is considered chronically absent, a new analysis shows

Every three weeks, schools in Irving send parents a progress report. But this is no longer just a notification about grades.

It also indicates how many days their children have been absent from class. If a student is absent multiple times, a personalized card encourages parents to ensure that this trend does not continue.

The school district's message to families is simple: If your children aren't attending class, they won't be able to have the learning experiences you want for them.

One of the most persistent consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is higher chronic absenteeism, and officials in districts like Irving ISD know they must take creative — sometimes intense — steps to address this serious problem.

“We need to work with parents,” said Reny Lizardo, director of campus operations. “This is definitely a situation where we both need to be on board.”

One in five Texas students were considered chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, according to data collected by The Associated Press and economist Thomas Dee of Stanford University as part of a national analysis.

Research shows that chronically absent students are at higher risk of becoming illiterate and eventually dropping out of school. These children also miss out on the meals, counseling and social interactions provided at school. At the same time, Texas schools lose money because state funding depends on how many children show up for class.

Years after the pandemic turned the American school system upside down, nearly every state still has problems with school attendance.

About one in four students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. That equates to about 12 million children in the 42 states and Washington, DC, for which data are available.

Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much class.

While society has largely moved on from COVID, school leaders say they are still grappling with the impact of school closures. After up to a year at home, many children felt overwhelmed, bored or stressed in class. More than ever, students and parents are deciding it's OK to stay home, making catching up on learning even more difficult.

“There's a shift in attitudes toward school,” said Angela Daniels, director of student engagement for Garland schools. “Parents have also changed their attitudes to think that it's OK if they're having a mental health day, aren't feeling well, or don't want to go to school today.”

In all states except Arkansas, absenteeism remains higher than before the pandemic. However, the researchers' analysis revealed promising data: In almost all states, absenteeism improved at least slightly from 2021-22 to 2022-23.

In Texas, the rate dropped from over 25% to around 20% – one of the biggest improvements in the national analysis. Before the pandemic, the state's chronic absenteeism rate was 11%.

Educators say they're working to identify students with declining attendance and then offer them help. And the key to doing that is bridging communication gaps with parents, who often don't know their child is missing so much school or why it's a problem.

So far, simple solutions seem to be helping – such as sending postcards to parents comparing a child's attendance with that of other students. But to make greater progress, schools must get creative and respond to the needs of their students, experts say.

Many of the reasons why children missed classes at the beginning of the pandemic still exist: financial difficulties, transportation problems, minor illnesses and mental health problems.

Solutions for schools

Previously, Irving school staff tried to make hundreds of phone calls each day to reach the families of students who did not show up for class.

“There were so many absent students. We just never managed to keep up with it,” Lizardo said. “You're constantly behind because even if an attendance checker works at high speed, he or she can't get through all 100 phone calls in one day.”

So last year, the district partnered with an educational technology company to use its attendance tools. Parents now automatically receive a text message — in the language they speak at home — when their children miss school.

Parents can also respond in their native language. The platform translates their responses so that non-bilingual teachers can chat with them.

Such a tool is helpful in a diverse district like Irving, where families speak Spanish, Urdu, and dozens of other languages at home.

During these interviews, you usually get a specific reason why a child isn't coming to school, Lizardo says. School staff then ask: Is there anything we can do to fix the problem?

For families experiencing homelessness, for example, a lack of transportation can be a barrier. Lizardo's team will step in and offer DART passes to students. They will connect them with a student-friendly rideshare program.

“These are all services we can offer them – if only we know if we are able to make that connection,” he said.

In Garland, the school district used its federal pandemic relief funds to add a team of seven retention specialists who made home visits to students who were frequently absent.

“Sometimes we had to talk to a family two or three times and really sit down with them for an hour,” Daniels said. The reasons why children didn't show up for class were complex, “and you really have to spend time with those families to solve all of those problems.”

But funding for these positions is running out. This school year, the team only has two retention specialists available. Their work will now be “less individualized,” says Daniels.

Texas Politics

Texas is one of the few states that uses average daily attendance rather than other enrollment measures to calculate state funding for public schools.

This means that chronic absenteeism not only harms the children who don't attend class. When fewer students show up, school districts ultimately receive less money to support the educational success of all children.

Stephanie Elizalde, Dallas's education secretary, called the practice “one of the most unfair practices the state can engage in with regard to public school funding.”

Students who struggle to attend school regularly are often those who face the greatest challenges in their communities, she said. About 85% of Dallas ISD students are considered economically disadvantaged.

“They have the least access to healthy food. They have the least access to transportation,” Elizalde explained during a budget meeting this year. “Oftentimes our children have stayed home to care for a sick sibling or they have to care for their parents.”

Dallas schools had a chronic absenteeism rate of nearly 28% in 2021-22, according to the most recent available district-level data reported to the state. About a quarter of Garland students were chronically absent that year. In Irving, it was nearly one in three.

In previous legislative sessions, lawmakers had tried unsuccessfully to change the funding formula from the attendance formula to the enrollment formula.

The legislature has also changed the state's approach to truancy and attempted to decriminalize it.

Before the state's sweeping changes in 2015, Texas children and teens who missed too many school days faced heavy fines and, in some cases, jail time.

Supporters of the education system pointed out that the system was an example of the ongoing criminalization of at-risk students.

Under the reformed system, school districts must take steps to prevent truancy to limit the need for legal action. If a student misses a certain number of days, school officials must send parents a letter and schedule an appointment. They must then develop an action plan that may include referring the student for counseling, community service or mentoring.

If a student continues to be absent from school on a regular basis, the child or parents may still be charged with truancy, where a judge may impose fines.

Some politicians complained that this approach was not coherent enough – an argument that was also put to lawmakers.

“This year we'll file more … then we'll dismiss the case if the family's condition improves,” said Daniels of Garland ISD. “We need to have some kind of accountability.”

Data for this article was collected by Stanford University professor Thomas Dee and Associated Press data journalist Sharon Lurye. AP reporters Jocelyn Gecker and Bianca Vázquez Toness contributed to this report.

The DMN Education Lab deepens coverage and discussion of pressing education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Meadows Foundation, Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control over the Education Lab's journalism.