A report released in March 2024 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that millions of American children experienced chronic absenteeism from school due to an injury, illness and/or disability.1 Many states define chronic absenteeism as missing 10 percent of school days (or around 18 days) during a school year. The data showed that over a quarter of American students from kindergarten through twelfth grade missed a month or more of the school during the 2022/23 school year, which translates to almost twice the number of students were who were chronically absent from school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.2
Data from CDC’s report showed that in 2022, 5.8 percent of children ages five to seventeen experienced chronic school absenteeism in the past 12 months. The difference in the number of boys (5.5 percent) and girls (6 percent) that were absent were not significant. The report also found that non-Hispanic white children and Hispanic children were chronically absent for health reasons at higher rates than other Asian and black children at 6.6 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. In comparison, 3.3 percent black children and 1.3 percent of Asian children were chronically absent from school for health reasons.3
The data revealed that the absenteeism rate was the highest for children with disabilities at 14.8 percent in comparison to children without disabilities at 4.4 percent. In addition, the percentage of children who experienced chronic school absenteeism was higher among children in fair or poor health at 28.7 percent compared to children in excellent, very good, or good health at 5.1 percent.4 Another 2018 nationwide study found that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism or developmental delays are twice as likely to be chronically absent from school compared to children without these conditions.5
School Absenteeism a Growing Concern in the U.S.
Stakeholders are concerned about chronic absenteeism in schools because children who are chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade are less likely to know how to read on grade level by the third grade. With respect to older students, chronic absenteeism is associated with failure in school. When a student accumulates many absences, he/she is more likely to be suspended and drop out of high school.6
A study conducted by Stanford University Professor of Education Thomas Dee, PhD, found that chronic absenteeism among public school students in the U.S. increased by more than 90 percent between the 2018/19 and 2021/22 school years. The study states:
Given that the public-schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia served roughly 48 million students in the 2021 to 2022 school year, these results imply an additional 6.5 million students became chronically absent during the recent return to in-person instruction.7
Hedy Chang, executive director of the organization Attendance Works, a national and state level initiative aimed at advancing student success by addressing chronic absence, said that one of the factors that result in school absenteeism is that some parents suffering with chronic illness lack access to healthcare which can impact whether the student gets dropped off to school, even when the child is not the one who is sick. She said:
It’s not just about illness challenges among kids, it’s also about illness challenges among their family members. Young kids get to school because their parents can take them. If their parents don’t have access and then the parents get sick, they can’t take their kid to school.8
While researchers have determined that chronic absenteeism is associated with children with health issues, there is lack of published research in the medical literature to answer the question of why so many children and parents in America are experiencing so much more chronic disease and disability.
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Click here to view References:2 HealthyChildren.org. School Attendance, Truancy & Chronic Absenteeism: What Parents Need to Know. Aug. 24, 2025.
3 CDC. Chronic School Absenteeism for Health-related Reasons Among Children Ages 5‒17 Years: United States, 2022. March 2024.
4 Ibid.
5 Black, L. Zablotsky B. Chronic School Absenteeism Among Children With Selected Developmental Disabilities: National Health Interview Survey, 2014–2016. National Center for Health Statistics 2018; 118.
6 HealthyChildren.org. School Attendance, Truancy & Chronic Absenteeism: What Parents Need to Know. Aug. 24, 2025.
7 Dee T. Higher chronic absenteeism threatens academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2024; 121(3): e2312249121.
8 Johnson SR. Health Issues Keep Millions of Kids Consistently Out of School, Study Finds. US News & World Report Mar. 14, 2024.
One Response
” Many states define chronic absenteeism as missing 10 percent of school days (or around 18 days) during a school year.”
So precovid, a lot of people used to send their sick kids into school. I get it. You and your spouse both work and you can’t afford to stay home with Johnny when he’s just drippy and who knows it could just be allergies. Those of us who can afford to stay home with sick kids, keep them home, and I’ve easily had my kid out 18 days of the school year over 3-4 colds. And of course, they’re just going to keep getting sick because everyone else is sending in their sick kids.
“The data showed that over a quarter of American students from kindergarten through twelfth grade missed a month or more of the school during the 2022/23 school year, which translates to almost twice the number of students were who were chronically absent from school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Bad school year to use. Some schools were still asking for us to keep kids home 10 days if they had Covid. Even if fever broke after 3 days. Also, my recollection was that the flu was making a comeback that year, and people had lost immunity to it.