While headlines about chronic absenteeism often focus on the bad news, a closer look at North Carolina’s data reveals a more balanced — and hopeful — story.
The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation’s (NCECF) new Attendance Data Dashboard spotlights schools that are successfully reversing the post-pandemic surge in chronic absenteeism. Using data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the dashboard highlights more than 200 elementary schools across the state that are keeping chronic absenteeism rates low — including 15 high-poverty schools that are beating the odds.
Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% or more of the school year, has remained stubbornly high statewide, with 23% of elementary students chronically absent in 2023–24 compared to 12% before the pandemic. Yet the data also show encouraging progress: absenteeism has dropped seven percentage points since peaking in 2021–22, when nearly one in three students was chronically absent.
One standout example is Trent Park Elementary in New Bern, where nearly 70% of students are economically disadvantaged. The school reduced chronic absenteeism from 23% in 2020–21 to just 9% in 2023–24 — a remarkable turnaround that demonstrates what’s possible when schools and families work together.
The report identifies 149 schools that have reduced their absenteeism spikes to near pre-pandemic levels, many through sustained, multi-year efforts. Some recovered attendance within a year, while others took two or three years to stabilize — underscoring the importance of consistent, long-term strategies rather than quick fixes.
NCECF’s analysis emphasizes learning from these “good news” schools to develop a North Carolina Attendance Recovery Playbook — a set of actionable strategies for increasing attendance statewide. These include building strong relationships with families, improving communication, addressing transportation and health barriers, and fostering a sense of belonging that keeps students engaged.
“The path forward will not be found by focusing on what’s going wrong,” the report notes, “but on what schools showing improvement are doing right.”
The dashboard and interactive figures were created from the publicly available data in the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s publicly available school report card data. Dr. Micere Keels, NCECF Policy and Practice Leader, cleaned and checked the data to ensure that merging the individual datasets did not introduce new errors. The data is provided in over 50 individual files.
Explore the full interactive dashboard and view school-by-school data here:
A New Perspective on Chronic Absenteeism: Highlighting the Good News Hidden Inside