Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism: Why Schools Can’t Solve it Alone

In Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism, Sarah Winchell Lenhoff and Jeremy Singer reframe chronic absenteeism as a symptom of a complex set of factors affecting the student, family, and community rather than simply an accountability metric for educators, schools, or districts. Lenhoff and Singer identify chronic absenteeism—often defined as missing 10 percent or more of instructional days—as an issue of social and economic inequality as much as an educational one, and they explore the role of K–12 schools and other organizations in solving this growing problem. The book is based on research conducted over eight years as part of a research-practice partnership with urban school systems in Detroit. Their results show the challenges of relying on school-based approaches to improve attendance, particularly in high absenteeism contexts where the causes of absenteeism are due to inequalities that are outside the scope of schools or districts to address. Purchase from our publisher and use code HCPR25 for a 20% discount: https://hep.gse.harvard.edu/9781682539613/rethinking-chronic-absenteeism/