Consistent school attendance in the early grades improves children’s learning and achievement.
Chronic absenteeism is an early predictor of student performance. As early as prekindergarten, children who are chronically absent (miss 10 percent of the academic year for any reason) are:
- less likely to read proficiently by the end of third grade,
- more likely to be retained, and
- less likely to develop the social skills needed to persist in school.
Attendance is actionable. Schools and districts across the country have reduced chronic absence by:
- focusing on recognizing good and improved attendance,
- engaging students and families,
- monitoring attendance data and practice,
- providing personalized early outreach as needed, and
- developing systemic responses to attendance barriers.
Find out the chronic absence rate at your child’s school, compare rates across NC school districts, or see how NC stacks up against other states, with this interactive chronic absence map from The Hamilton Project.

What Can We Do About It?
What supports regular school attendance?
- Policies and practices that focus on tracking and using actionable, responsive data and engaging families and communities, and
- Evidence-based and evidence-informed programs that foster a positive and engaging school climate.
NCECF’s AttendaNCe Counts publications consider the current NC state, district and school-level policies and practices around regular school attendance and make recommendations for action.
Pathways to Grade-Level Reading Design Teams co-created the Pathways Action Framework, focusing in on three areas that directly impact third grade reading proficiency:
- Social-emotional health
- High quality birth through age eight care and education
- Regular school attendance
Read the Pathways Action Framework here.
Nine steps that states should take according to Attendance Works.
Featured Resources
2019 AttendaNCe Counts Community Toolkit
NCECF's new 2019 toolkit to support community partners in highlighting the importance of regular attendance in the early grades.
AttendaNCe Counts: How Schools and Local Communities are Reducing Chronic Absence in North Carolina
NCECF's 2019 AttendaNCe Counts report outlines results from a survey through EducationNC’s Reach NC Voices platform of 1,500 NC parents, preschool staff, elementary school staff and community providers. Respondents shared their impressions of their local attendance policies and practices, including around school environment, family engagement, communication, working with community partners, staff capacity, accuracy of attendance data and more.
AttendaNCe Counts: What North Carolina School Districts are Doing to Reduce Chronic Absence
AttendaNCe Counts: What North Carolina School Districts are Doing to Reduce Chronic Absence provides results of a self-assessment that asked school districts to share which of their attendance policies and practices are strong, and where there are opportunities for improvement. The assessment responses are the self-reported impressions of school district superintendent office staff. Fifty-five out of 115 school districts responded.
What Works for Third Grade Reading: Regular Attendance
The brief considers why regular attendance at preschool and the early grades matters for third grade reading proficiency, outlines its connection with other factors that impact early literacy, and highlights options that have been shown to move the needle on attendance. It is one of 12 working papers that offer research-based policy, practice and program options to states and communities working to improve third grade reading proficiency.