Chronic absenteeism improves in Indiana for second year in a row, still higher than pre-pandemic

Today, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) presented the state’s most recent chronic absenteeism data and unveiled a new Attendance Insights dashboard to the Indiana State Board of Education (SBOE). Recent data shows student attendance is improving, with chronic absenteeism improving for the second consecutive year.

“We know that students can only master key skills like literacy and numeracy when they are in the classroom and ready to learn,” said Dr. Katie Jenner, Indiana Secretary of Education. “Across the country, we have seen chronic absenteeism rates increase dramatically following the pandemic. Although we are seeing improvement in Indiana, we must continue to link arms to do everything we can to ensure our students are coming to school. This means working together with parents, educators and community partners to focus on community-centered solutions that ensure our students are in school every day.” 

Overall, Indiana’s chronic absenteeism rate for the 2023-2024 school year was 17.8%, meaning nearly one in five students missed at least 10% of school days or about three and a half weeks. This is an improvement of 1.4 percentage points from the 2022-2023 school year and is 3.3 percentage points better than the post-pandemic high of 21.1%. Below are additional key takeaways from the data:

• Indiana’s chronic absenteeism rate is moving in the right direction, improving for two consecutive years. Statewide, chronic absenteeism has improved 3.3 percentage points since 2022, yet there is more work to do to return to pre-pandemic levels.
• Statewide, chronic absenteeism improved 1.4 percentage points from 2023 to 2024. Data show that student populations who experienced the greatest academic impacts in ELA and math following the pandemic are improving more quickly than the state overall.
  • Black students - Improved 2.2 percentage points 
  • Hispanic students - Improved 2.2 percentage points
  • Students receiving free/reduced price meals - Improved 2.2 percentage points
  • English learners - Improved 2.0 percentage points
• The number of schools with fewer than 10% of students who are chronically absent grew from 580 in 2023 to 686 in 2024, yet 74 schools have more than 50% of students who are chronically absent.
• Rates of chronic absenteeism continue to be the highest at the high school level, specifically in grades 11 and 12. Nearly one in three Hoosier students are chronically absent during their senior year. 
  • This underscores the urgency behind the ongoing work to rethink the high school experience and ensure more parents and students see the value in education.
• Students who are chronically absent are significantly less likely to read by third grade, master key ELA and math skills, or be college-ready.

One way that Indiana is elevating the importance of student attendance is through the development of an Attendance Insights dashboard. The public version of the dashboard, which will be located on the state’s EdData page following its launch later this fall, will display attendance data at the grade-, school- and corporation-level. The dashboard will show different types of absences (excused or unexcused), as well as chronic absence rates and will allow users to view longitudinal data that can be disaggregated by student population. The public dashboard will be refreshed annually once schools have certified their data. 

This tool will help both schools, as well as community leaders to:

• Analyze student attendance data over time 
• Identify any trends/patterns in the data or areas where data collection could be improved
• Work with a variety of stakeholders to identify root causes of poor attendance
• Review attendance policies and utilize data to inform short- and long-term policy decisions
• Set goals for improved attendance and/or data collection
• Evaluate the impact of current efforts to improve attendance

The state is also piloting an Early Warning dashboard, which will provide actionable data for educators and families as they work together to support students most at risk of not graduating. Attendance will be one of several indicators of high importance that will be used in determining which students are considered at risk.

In addition to the new Attendance Insights and Early Warning dashboards, attendance is also elevated as one of 20 headline indicators currently on the Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed (Indiana GPS) performance dashboard. Indiana GPS specifically displays the percentage of students who attend school more than 94% of the time. Indiana-specific research shows that students who attend school less than 94% of the time experience negative academic impacts as a result. Statewide, only 61% of students have an attendance rate of 94% or higher.

Additional information on Indiana’s ongoing efforts to elevate the importance of student attendance can be found here.