In Absent from School, Gottfried and Hutt offer a comprehensive and timely resource for educators and policy makers seeking to understand the scope, impact, and causes of chronic student absenteeism. The editors present a series of studies by leading researchers from a variety of disciplines that address which students are missing school and why, what roles schools themselves play in contributing to or offsetting patterns of absenteeism, and ways to assess student attendance for purposes of school accountability. The contributors examine school-based initiatives that focus on a range of issues, including transportation, student health, discipline policies, and protections for immigrant students, as well as interventions intended to improve student attendance. Only in the past two or three years has chronic absenteeism become the focus of attention among policy makers, civil rights advocates, and educators. Absent from School provides the first critical, systematic look at research that can inform and guide those who are working to ensure that every child is in school and learning every day.

Table of Contents ForewordElaine Allensworth and Robert Balfanz IntroductionMichael A. Gottfried and Ethan L. HuttPART IMeasuring Absenteeism 1. Roll Call Describing Chronically Absent Students, the Schools They Attend, and Implications for AccountabilityHeather Hough 2. Variation in Chronic Absenteeism The Role of Children, Classrooms, and SchoolsKevin A. Gee 3.Attending to Attendance Why Data Quality and Modeling Assumptions Matter When Using Attendance as an OutcomeShaun M. Dougherty and Joshua Childs 4. The Distributional Impacts of Student Absences on Academic AchievementSeth Gershenson, Jessica Rae McBean, and Long TranPART IIPolicies, Programs, and Practices 5. Reinforcing Student Attendance Shifting Mind-Sets and Implementing Data-Driven Improvement Strategies During School TransitionsStacy B. Ehrlich and David W. Johnson 6. Schools as Sanctuaries? Examining the Relationship Between Immigration Enforcement and Absenteeism Rates for Immigrant-Origin ChildrenCarolyn Sattin-Bajaj and Jacob Kirksey 7. Can School Buses Drive Down (Chronic) Absenteeism?Sarah A. Cordes, Michele Leardo, Christopher Rick, and Amy Ellen Schwartz 8. The Ills of Absenteeism Can School-Based Health Centers Provide the Cure?Jennifer Graves, Sarit Weisburd, and Christopher Salem 9. Tackling Truancy Findings from a State-Level Policy Banning Suspensions for TruancyKaitlin Anderson, Anna J. Egalite, and Jonathan N. MillsPART IIIInterventions 10. Ready . . . Set . . . Text! Reducing School Absenteeism Through Parent-School Two-Way Text MessagingKen Smythe-Leistico and Lindsay C. Page 11. Keeping Families Front and Center Leveraging Our Best Ally for Ninth-Grade AttendanceMartha Abele Mac Iver and Steven B. Sheldon 12. Intervention Design Choices and Evaluation Lessons from Multisite Field Trials on Reducing AbsenteeismRekha Balu 13. ConclusionEthan L. Hutt and Michael A. Gottfried AfterwordTodd Rogers and Johannes Demarzi Notes Acknowledgments About the Editors About the Contributors Index