Student Absenteeism a Persistent Problem, but Georgia Is Doing Better than Most States

Student absenteeism a persistent problem, but Georgia is doing better than most states

ATLANTA — When COVID-19 struck, schools closed, students “attended” from home, and too many got out of the habit of going to school when the doors reopened. In 2022, nearly a quarter of Georgia’s students had absenteeism rates high enough…

Early Returns, and Good News, on Attendance in Georgia

Last month, I published my annual report on national progress on chronic absenteeism. The picture is not comforting. Looking at data from 45 states for the 2024–25 school year, I show that chronic absenteeism rates continue to decline from their 2022 peak, but much more slowly than in prior years. As I put it in the report:  Using the American Enterprise Institute’s Return to Learn Tracker, which provides chronic absenteeism data for districts …