Absenteeism spiked in the pandemic. Texas schools want the state’s help to keep students in the classroom.

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In a typical school week, Delaila Constante makes more than a dozen calls to parents of students who are frequently absent from school. Last October, she made around 50 to 60 calls each week.

As a parental involvement assistant at Edinburg North High School in South Texas, Constante is responsible for checking with parents of students who miss too much school, whether their absences are excused or unexcused. Parents often tell her their families face medical or financial difficulties like not having running water or enough food to put on the table.

Constante came into her role in 2022, when schools were seeing absenteeism rates rise rapidly as a prolonged effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem lingers today. Texas school leaders and education experts say repeated absences can lead to worse outcomes for students and a risk of dropping out.

“They miss out on learning,” Constante said. “They miss out on everyday activities in class. You miss a day or two and you stay behind. You’re playing a catchup game.”

For school districts, which receive state funding based on average attendance, more students missing school can mean less money coming in.

Schools throughout the state have employed multiple strategies to better identify and aid chronically absent students, like partnering with nonprofits and community organizations. Still, school leaders are looking for the state’s help to create more awareness of the problem and curb absenteeism rates.

Chronic absences

A student is considered chronically absent who misses at least 10% of days in a school year for any reason — whether they are excused or not.

Absenteeism rates spiked after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic with about one in five Texas students being chronically absent for the 2022-23 school year, nearly double the rate for the 2018-19 school year, according to Texas Education Agency data. Chronic absenteeism rose even higher nationally during this time.

Education experts and school leaders have attributed the continued rise in chronic absenteeism to several factors, including shifting habits about when families decide to keep their kids at home. Since the pandemic, parents are more skeptical about when to send their children back to school, especially when their student may be slightly under the weather or have a cold, said Sharon Vigil, CEO of Communities In Schools of Central Texas. Her organization works directly with students in Central Texas, including those who are chronically absent.

But those changes have come with a cost: Research shows that chronic absenteeism can harm students’ academic performance, future outcomes and mental well-being.

“We are creating a disconnected society when they’re not on campus,” she said. “They’re not getting healthy relationships and practicing how to build these healthy relationships if they’re not there.”

Students who are chronically absent for just one year between 8th grade and their senior year of high school are seven times more likely to drop out of school than those who are not, according to 2016 research from the U.S. Department of Education. Chronic absenteeism can also negatively impact a student’s access to mental health support, Vigil said.

Statewide data shows that chronic absenteeism disproportionately affects economically disadvantaged students and children in special education programs. This was the case for Texas students before the pandemic as well.

Jonathan Feinstein, state director of Texas for The Education Trust, said there isn’t just one reason why economically disadvantaged students are more likely to miss school. Factors could include whether parents are able to take their kids to school or whether students have at-home responsibilities, like watching siblings, that could keep them from going to school regularly.

Students in special education programs are also more likely to be chronically absent, Feinstein said, because they may feel that their academic needs are not being met by teachers and staff, which can make them less interested in attending school.

Eduardo Hernández, superintendent of Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, said he has also seen recent high inflation impact his students’ attendance. His district had a chronic absenteeism rate of 53.6% for the 2022-23 school year, the highest in the state, according to performance reports from the state education agency.

High inflation has hurt families’ bottom lines, Hernández said, often resulting in a lack of access to necessities, like food or quality health care. Higher costs mean many families are facing social and emotional challenges that impact whether a student will attend school, he said.

“Those things actually play out in terms of students coming or not coming to school,” he said.

Hernández’s district is trying to help by connecting these families with city services, in addition to having more conversations with his community about the consequences of chronic absenteeism.

Absenteeism and funding

Hernández said Edgewood ISD has started hosting “Pláticas,” or conversations with parents about the importance of students attending schools. At lunch meetings with students, he said he emphasizes the connection between school attendance and district funding.

Hernández said the state should reassess how it funds school districts. State funding for Texas public schools is based on average daily attendance, which particularly hurts districts with higher absenteeism rates like his, he said. Texas is one of a handful of states, including California and Missouri, that determines state funding for public schools based on average daily attendance instead of enrollment, which some public education advocates consider to be a more stable metric to calculate schools’ funding.

When fewer students attend school, Edgewood ISD loses funding that goes directly into the classroom and extracurricular activities, Hernández said. It has forced the district to reconsider whether to continue to fund after-school programs, he added.

“We’re planning for a full, high-quality experience for our students, but we are only getting paid for students that are able to actually attend school,” he said.

Brian Woods, director of advocacy at the Texas Association of School Administrators, said funding based on average daily attendance “sets schools up at a disadvantage” since districts hire staff based on enrollment — meaning there might be a difference between the costs of staffing the school and the amount of money districts get from the state.

Located in South Texas, Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District’s funding has also been hurt by high chronic absenteeism rates, Superintendent Mario Salinas said. The district loses around $7 million for every 5% drop in attendance per year, he said. Chronic absenteeism rates are higher overall in school districts near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the most recent data.

School districts where a higher portion of students are economically disadvantaged also tend to have higher chronic absenteeism rates, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of district-level data. That trend was exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though Edinburg CISD’s chronic absenteeism rate sat around 28.1% for the 2022-23 school year — nearly eight points higher than the state average, according to TEA performance data — it was a far cry from the 40% rate the district saw the year before.

To encourage higher attendance, Salinas said he has asked extracurricular advisers in the district — like coaches and band directors — to not allow students to participate in post-school activities unless they attended school that day. In 2023, Edinburg CISD also hired an attendance supervisor, Elias Lozano, to oversee the district’s more than 40 schools.

Lozano said in recent years the district has begun a more targeted approach to connecting with chronically absent students. For the 2022-23 school year, principals began receiving weekly reports on student attendance, he said, allowing them to better identify students at risk.

These efforts appear to be working, Lozano said. The district’s chronic absenteeism rate sits roughly around 20% for the 2023-24 academic year, he said, lower than the year before.

To encourage more kids to attend school, some school districts have also coordinated with community organizations and businesses for support. Starting this year, Manor ISD near Austin is partnering with local businesses, encouraging them to call the district if they notice any absent students frequenting their establishments during the school day. Then, a district staff member will come speak with the student and bring the student back to school in a district car. “Operation Condor,” as Superintendent Robert Sormani calls it, has been “incredibly effective” so far, he said.

Nearly one-third of all students in Manor ISD were chronically absent during the 2022-23 academic year, more than double the rate for the 2018-19 academic year. To address the rise, Sormani said the district has also sought help from Communities In Schools of Central Texas to connect with chronically absent students.

Manor ISD is one of seven school districts working directly with Communities In Schools of Central Texas. The nonprofit has offices at several of the district's schools. Vigil, the CEO of the group, which receives funding support from the state, said staffers connect directly with chronically absent students by calling or meeting with them in person.

Increased awareness at the state level

Chronic absenteeism has received limited attention from the state in recent years. But with a new legislative session underway, Rep. Mary González, D-Clint, hopes there will be renewed attention on the problem.

González introduced a bill that would consider chronically absent students “at risk of dropping out” under Texas law and add the definition of chronic absenteeism to the state’s Education Code.

“By including this in the definition, it allows for an intentionality around supporting and addressing the students’ needs,” González said.

Similar bills failed in the past two sessions. González said she believes growing awareness about the negative impacts of chronic absenteeism could help it pass this time around.

Mandi Kimball, chief government affairs officer at the Texas-based nonprofit Children at Risk, has been pushing for legislation to address chronic absenteeism since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. González’s bill “just fell short” last session, she said, but more legislators are now familiar with what chronic absenteeism is and its effect.

González’s bill would also require that the Texas Education Agency report data related to chronic absenteeism. The agency started tracking this data for the 2018-19 school year in school district performance reports, but the bill would enshrine the practice into law.

The bill’s measures will help ensure that the problem is treated seriously, González said.

But even with more awareness, school leaders like Hernández of Edgewood ISD say that addressing chronic absenteeism requires more support from both inside and outside the school community.

“The school system is the creator of the future workforce,” Hernández said. “We need a concerted effort from all walks of life — business, health, everybody — to really just promote the importance of being in school.”

Disclosure: Texas Association of School Administrators and Education Trust have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.