More than one-third Oregon students missed at least 17 days of school in the 2024-25 school year. The 33.5% chronic absentee rate is the second highest rate of states that have released such data so far.
A recent summary from the University of Oregon’s HEDCO Institute may have possible solutions for schools struggling with students missing large amounts of the school year.
The report is a condensed version of a meta-analysis that examined 49 studies on solutions to chronic absenteeism.
"Schools are so inundated with things to do, maybe this is a light lift that could make a really big impact for students," said Elizabeth Day, a UO assistant research professor and assistant director of outreach for the HEDCO Institute.
The summary laid out five categories of chronic absenteeism reduction techniques that the meta-analysis found to be successful in multiple studies:
The first, change curriculum to increase student engagement.
“So, finding ways to keep students engaged and make it more fun for students while still being true to those standards,” Day said.
The second, foster relationships and mentoring for students by either adults or other students.
“It’s really having that mentor, that support, but could also be something like a peer tutor,” she said.
The third, increase family connections with their child’s school.
“This one’s about getting that face-to-face contact or working through intermediaries if there are home visiting programs or case managers,” Day said. “Someone who can be a face to work between parents and schools.”
The fourth, ensure messages to parents about absences contain deeper information beyond the fact that a child missed school.
“It could be automated, but more personalized in terms of ‘just a heads-up, your student has been gone for this many days. This is the amount of days that when they hit that point, we have to step in,” she said.
The final category was a whole school approach that involves the use of multiple means to ensure a student doesn’t slip through the cracks.
Day said this category was a result of schools that were in the studies that tried multiple attempts simultaneously.
“So it’s really impossible to tease out which specific lever was the one that made the impact,” she said.
The original analysis said that there is a 77% chance that implementing these changes will reduce chronic absenteeism and a 75% chance that it will reduce the number of absences at a school.
