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Chronic absenteeism remains elevated in California, highest in high‑poverty schools, expert warns
Summary
Attendance expert Hedi Chang told the Assembly committee chronic absence doubled during the pandemic and remains concentrated in high‑poverty schools; she urged a cross‑departmental state strategy, better data use, and family‑centered outreach to reduce absence.
Hedi Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, told the Assembly Education Committee chronic absenteeism rose sharply during the pandemic, has declined only slowly, and remains especially high in high‑poverty California schools.
Chang said national chronic absence rose from about 16% pre‑pandemic to nearly 30% during the pandemic and that California saw a larger spike and a slightly faster decline, but still elevated levels. She highlighted a particular concern for children who were in kindergarten during the pandemic cohort: kindergarten absence rose dramatically and those children’s later reading scores show downstream effects.
Chang emphasized that chronic absence affects entire classrooms and schools, not only the students who miss classes: “when you have a high level of chronic absence, the impact is not just on the kids who are chronically absent. It's on all of the kids in a classroom because it makes it harder for teachers to teach,” she said.
Why it matters: Chang showed that the worst attendance problems are concentrated in the highest‑poverty schools. She said some very high‑poverty California schools had 75–86% of their students in schools where 20% or more were chronically absent in 2021–22, and that roughly half of all California schools still experienced disruptive levels of chronic absence at the end of 2023–24. Those elevated absence levels help explain why lower‑income districts recovered more slowly academically.
Recommendations: Chang urged the Legislature and the California Department of Education to create a cross‑departmental attendance task force to coordinate prevention and recovery, and to set a measurable goal—she suggested a 50% reduction in chronic absence from current levels. She recommended investing in multi‑tiered systems of support, school nurses, clear compassionate truancy messaging, and data tools so counties and districts can identify which students need extra outreach and services.
Ending: Chang said California has strengths—actionable attendance data and programs such as expanded learning—but that success requires coordinating those tools and funding to target the schools and students most affected.
