• Chronic absenteeism means missing 10% or more of school days in a year.
• 5 to 7.5 million students are chronically absent each year.
• Students who are chronically absent are less likely to succeed  academically and more likely to drop out of school.
• Attending school every day increases your chances of success in school and in life.

A student is chronically absent if he or she misses as few as two days of school a month.

2 DAYS PER MONTH X 9 MONTHS = CHRONIC ABSENCE

Chronic Absenteeism Statistics 

• Absenteeism in kindergarten can affect whether a child develops the grit and perseverance needed to succeed in school.
• Absenteeism in preschool and kindergarten can influence whether a child will be held back in third grade.
• Research proves that students who are chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade are far less likely to read proficiently by third grade.
• For every day of school missed, it takes three days to make up what was taught.
• By the sixth grade, if a student continues to be chronically absent, it is a leading indicator of whether he or she will drop out of high school.
• In the ninth grade, chronic absences are a better indicator than test scores of a student’s likelihood to graduate from high school.
• Kindergarten and first-grade classes often have absenteeism rates as high as those in high school.  Many of these absences are excused, but still add up to lost time in the classroom.
• Students who attend school regularly are more likely to graduate and find good jobs.  In fact, a high school graduate makes on average $1 million more than a dropout over a lifetime.
• A student who misses 10 days or more during a school year is 20 percent less likely to graduate from high school and 25 percent less likely to ever enroll in college.
• Chronic absence can affect a student’s ability to earn a living.  Dropouts are less likely to succeed in a career, and even those who do graduate will not do well at work without good attendance habits.
• Skipping school may sound fun, but doing so can have serious consequences including jail time, fines or even the loss of a driver’s license.
• Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year.  Half the students who miss 2-4 days in September go on to miss nearly a month of school.
• An estimated 5 million to 7.5 million U.S. students miss nearly a month of school each year.
• Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back.
• By 6^th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high School.
• Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most school districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance.  That’s just two days a month and that’s known as chronic absence.
• The academic impact of missing that much school is the same whether the absences are excused or unexcused.  Suspensions also add to lost time in the classroom.
• When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances of graduating.
• The mortality rate of high school dropouts is over two times greater than that for adults with some college education.