But the upbeat mood belies the more serious reason that brings many of them here: They鈥檙e missing too much school. A short distance from southern California鈥檚 famous theme parks, the bright blue stucco building has become an extension of the Buena Park School District鈥檚 response to soaring absenteeism. The club is a place to make friends and for many, offers the only stability they鈥檝e had during the pandemic.

鈥淲e are serving a need that the school hasn鈥檛 been able to fill,鈥� said Luz Valenzuela-Trout, director of operations.

The district鈥檚 partnership with the club is an example of the extensive steps many educators nationally are taking to track down students missing school and reverse unprecedented levels of disengagement. But those efforts are rubbing up against the sheer scope of the problem. Chronic absenteeism has hit 40% in, New York City and Los Angeles, and is reaching dangerously high numbers in many districts in between.

鈥淭he pandemic radically changed norms about going to school,鈥� said Emily Bailard, CEO of , a company that partners with school districts to improve attendance.

It has compounded issues that have always contributed to absenteeism, from lack of food at home to bullying in school, she said. Many teens began working or added more hours at their jobs to help out their families. Now educators 鈥渉ave to be able to address four or five things instead of one or two.鈥�

Elsie Brise帽o Simonovski, the Buena Park district鈥檚 director of student and community services, sometimes scours apartment complexes with granola bars in her pockets to round up children who might otherwise not make it to class. She escorts families to gas stations to fill up their cars 鈥� courtesy of a state grant that covers fuel costs if parents show they鈥檙e taking their kids to school.

Yvette Cantu, the district鈥檚 chief academic officer, said even high-achieving students have racked up more absences than usual during the pandemic. Such students often thrive on positive feedback from adults, she said, something they missed during closures and quarantine.

鈥楩or no reason鈥� 

In some districts, chronic absenteeism far exceeds the 10% a year that typically defines the problem. In March, the U.S. Government Accountability Office showing that over a million teachers 鈥� nearly half 鈥� had at least one student during the 2020-21 school year that never showed up for class. 

Some educators say they haven鈥檛 seen any improvement since then.

Jenevieve Jackson, a digital photography and video teacher in the Orange County Public Schools in Florida, has some students who have only been in class twice the entire year. Others have racked up over 80 absences. 

鈥淢any of the absences are for no reason. The students who were not that excited about school in the first place are even less motivated,鈥� Jackson said. The district hired 鈥渋ntervention teachers鈥� to help struggling students, she said, but 鈥渢hey鈥檙e often used to cover the massive teacher and sub shortage and to proctor exams.鈥�

Schools are under pressure to reduce chronic absenteeism because most states track it for federal accountability purposes. Those rates, however, offer little information about what schools are doing to improve attendance, according to Jing Liu, an education professor at the University of Maryland. 

He thinks that needs to change. In published by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, he recommended reporting attendance in a way that goes beyond chronic absenteeism. He proposed an 鈥渁ttendance value-added鈥� measure that would reveal schools鈥� contributions to reducing absenteeism and offer 鈥渁 much fairer鈥� comparison.

Focusing on ninth graders, Liu analyzed 16 years of attendance data from a diverse, urban school district in California with 60,000 students. On average, students in the sample 鈥� he would not identify the district 鈥� missed 79 class periods each year, or roughly 11 school days. 

But when he disregarded characteristics that schools can鈥檛 control 鈥� like race, gender and poverty level 鈥� attendance rates leaped by 28 class periods, or about four days, in schools with a strong value-added result. In some schools, the average rates increased as much as eight days. 

Todd Rogers, a public policy professor at Harvard University who studied absenteeism and launched , said the concept 鈥渟eems like an amazing idea.鈥� Nudging parents to get their children to school and showing them how absences add up 鈥� Rogers studied 鈥� only reduces chronic absenteeism by 10% to 15%. 

鈥淭here’s no silver bullet, so the goal is to do everything you can that works,鈥� he said.

But for the time being, schools are struggling to address the problem in front of them.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be really hard in the short term until behaviors and school norms stabilize,鈥� Rogers said.

鈥楾he heavy lift鈥�

In the Metro Nashville Public Schools 鈥� with a 30% chronic absenteeism rate this year 鈥� Carol Lampkin, the district鈥檚 director of attendance services, said students are less likely to come to school if their teachers are absent, a problem that has intensified with staff members out because of COVID.

The issue has fueled creative approaches to reminding parents of the importance of keeping their children in school. Staff members recently gathered at a local Baptist church as part of their newest strategy 鈥� offering information on COVID vaccines, housing and transportation assistance in hopes of pinpointing the reasons children miss school.

Families whose children have at least half a dozen absences were more likely to get an invitation or a knock on the door, urging them to attend the event.

鈥淭he idea was to take the heavy lift off of the schools,鈥� Lampkin said. 鈥淥ur schools, our teachers, our principals 鈥� are dealing with so much.鈥�

Lampkin thought grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, served while DJs spun family-friendly tunes, would be more effective at getting frequently absent students back in class than stern warnings about truancy. 

Sonya Thomas, executive director of Nashville PROPEL, a parent advocacy organization, said she appreciates what the district is trying to do, but thinks officials could be overlooking important reasons students are absent. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it has anything to do with affordable housing,鈥� she said. She urged educators to ask themselves, 鈥淲hat does the school culture look like when [students] enter the building?鈥� 

She鈥檚 worked with families whose children have been suspended multiple times this year for dress code violations, and she recently held a to draw attention to a Black student who reported being called the N-word by a paraprofessional. (A spokesman for the district said the employee has been placed on administrative leave and will 鈥渇ace appropriate disciplinary action鈥� if the report is substantiated.)

鈥淲e鈥檝e got to dig deeper. Is that child being bullied at school?鈥� Thomas asked. 鈥淚s that child feeling like they鈥檙e not doing well?鈥�

Liu鈥檚 research backs up Thomas鈥檚 concerns. Examining three years of survey responses from students, he found that the most likely way to improve the value-added measure was to increase their sense of safety at school.

Meanwhile, Simonovski in Buena Park developed her own method of recognizing schools for reducing absenteeism. Instead of just giving awards to those with the highest attendance 鈥� which meant a lot of repeat winners 鈥� she highlights schools showing the most improvement.

Winners get what she described as a sort of 鈥淧ublishers Clearinghouse鈥� ceremony 鈥� balloons, certificates and trays of treats. 

That tells schools, 鈥渨e鈥檙e paying attention,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e celebrating these checkpoints with you.”

Lead Image: Boys did their homework in the teen room at the Boys and Girls Club of Buena Park. The local school district鈥檚 partnership with the club is addressing chronic absenteeism. (Linda Jacobson)

Conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maryland, the analysis of over 14,000 districts nationwide shows that in 2000, the average child from a poor family went to an elementary school where almost half of the students were defined as middle class. By 2015, that figure had fallen to 36 percent.

As the nation鈥檚 population grows, the shift 鈥� especially in the West and the South 鈥攎eans they are less likely to experience of racially and socioeconomically mixed schools, the study notes, including higher test scores, smaller racial achievement gaps and higher college enrollment rates.

The findings, according to the researchers, also carry broad implications for academic recovery efforts in the wake of the pandemic. 

A previous analysis by 麻豆精品 showed disproportionate increases in chronic absenteeism among English learners, three-fourths of whom are Spanish-speakers. And data shows that Latino families were among those by COVID-related job loss and financial hardship, creating a larger challenge for schools serving high concentrations of Latino students.

鈥淒eeper forces have sustained achievement disparities in recent decades, especially this worsening isolation of the poor from middle-class students,鈥� said Bruce Fuller, a Berkeley sociology professor and lead author of the paper. 鈥淐OVID-era learning loss is but a surface symptom of deeper ills that beset public education.鈥�

鈥渟lowed desegregation efforts鈥� in districts with large Black student populations and shifted attention toward improving schools in Black and Latino communities, the authors said. 

Now among Latinos, combined with the movement of Latino families to the suburbs, have contributed to racial isolation, they wrote.

鈥溾�榃hite flight鈥� from the public school system translates into resource flight from racially isolated schools,鈥� said Feliza Oritz-Licon, chief policy and advocacy officer at Latinos for Education, a nonprofit focusing on teacher recruitment and education policy. She added that in racially isolated schools it becomes easy to 鈥渄ismiss鈥� Latino students as underperforming.

But not all districts have seen a decline in their white student populations. The chances that Latino children will interact with white peers at school are higher in the Midwest and Northeast. In fact, the researchers found 800 school districts where the white student population had not declined over that 15-year time period, even as the Latino student population grew. 

鈥楿nder one school roof鈥�

The Berkeley study builds on research by Sean Reardon at Stanford University, drew connections between racial segregation and large achievement gaps due to concentrations of Black and Latino students in high-poverty schools.

Pedro Noguera, dean of education at the University of Southern California, said rising segregation not only affects who students sit next to in class, but also broader support for public schools. 

鈥淎ll of this is troubling. We have to get better at offering the kinds of programs that will attract affluent parents,鈥� he said, noting that International Baccalaureate programs, Advanced Placement courses and other offerings 鈥渟end the signal of a high standard. That鈥檚 what Latino parents want as well.鈥�

Fuller and his co-authors wrote that without more inter-district choice programs, which would allow entree to higher-performing schools in wealthier neighborhoods, Latino students will continue to have fewer opportunities to attend integrated schools. 

A report released last year by Bellwether Education Partners explored additional obstacles to integration created by a lack of affordable housing in districts with higher performing schools; even if low-income families want to move into such school districts, housing options are scarce.

鈥淐ivic leaders and educators must expand ways of pulling the nation’s diverse children under one school roof,鈥� Fuller said.

In 2020, the Century Foundation, a left leaning think tank, identified initiatives underway in school districts and charter school networks to increase integration. Some of the programs were voluntary, while others resulted from desegregation orders.

鈥楾he country鈥檚 prosperity鈥�

But Noguera said some charter schools predominantly serve Black students or Latino students, . 

By 2060, Latinos are projected to make up over one fourth of the U.S. population, according to Census Bureau , and Latino children currently account for of public school enrollment. 

Increasing the numbers of Latino educators is one way for districts to increase achievement, researchers at the Brookings Institution wrote in last year that focused on the Clark County School District in Nevada. They cited studies showing that Latino students are more likely to be placed in gifted programs and take Advanced Placement courses when their schools have more teachers that look like them.

Recruiting more Latino educators and giving Latinos a greater role in education policy is also a priority for philanthropist McKenzie Scott, who last week donated to Latinos for Education to support the organization鈥檚 work.

Latino educators are often assigned to high-need, racially isolated schools because they reflect the cultural backgrounds of students. But turnover is high, with many leaving the profession within four years, noted Oritz-Licon of Latinos for Education.

The organization鈥檚 October featured concerns from Latino educators, such as the cost of earning a degree and requests from administrators to provide translation services without additional compensation. 

Oritz-Licon called on schools serving Latino students to use relief funds for afterschool programs, academic support and parent engagement efforts since many high-needs schools might lack those services. 

鈥淟atino students are American students,鈥� she said. 鈥淭heir educational outcomes should matter because as a growing population, their prosperity is the country鈥檚 prosperity.鈥�