Alaska has some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in the nation — state data shows that more than 44,000 students were considered chronically absent from public schools last year.
Legislators with the joint bipartisan task force on education funding are considering how to support districts in tackling Alaska’s chronic absenteeism. Research shows missing days of school can result in learning loss, lower academic proficiency, lower graduation rates and longer-term social and behavioral problems.
As Alaska schools are grappling with steep budget deficits, cuts to programs and high teacher turnover, the causes and contributing factors of chronic absenteeism are wide ranging and difficult to define statewide. Schools and districts are faced with unique challenges around determining why so many students are missing school and ways to improve attendance.
Nationwide, student absences from school jumped during the COVID-19 pandemic amid the transition and challenges with online learning, a trend also seen in Alaska schools. But chronic absenteeism rates in Alaska have remained significantly high in the years since.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of school days, due to excused absences — which includes sports team travel — or unexcused absences or suspensions. For Alaska, that’s missing 17 days or more, according to Department of Education Commissioner Deena Bishop.
In Alaska, the rate of chronic absenteeism peaked at over 48% of students during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2021-2022 school year, according to data from the state’s education department. Alaska’s chronic absenteeism rate was the highest in the nation that year.
That rate has only dropped slightly since then — to nearly 43% of students last year.
The rate for Wrangell was 30.4%.
“The point of this metric is for us to notice kids who are missing out on the opportunity to benefit from whatever is being taught in the classroom and schools,” said Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, a national nonprofit that helps districts address absenteeism, when she gave a presentation to Alaska lawmakers on Jan. 23.
Statewide, more than 56% of Alaska Native/American Indian students were chronically absent last year, compared to nearly 35% of white students. Nearly 46% of students with disabilities, and 51% of English-language learners were chronically absent, according to the state’s report card.
Missing school has a ripple effect on a student’s learning and development, Chang said. “It leads them to be less likely to be reading at the end of third grade, less likely to be achieving in middle school, more likely to be suspended, more likely to not graduate, and it actually affects and is connected to the development of their social, emotional and executive functioning skills later on.”
Chang outlined recommendations for state policy including sharing data on attendance levels by school and districts, promoting school and district teams to address attendance, and requiring outreach before disenrolling students.
Chang emphasized that attendance issues are complex, and solutions will be different for each school and district. Absences can be connected to chronic illness or access to health care, housing insecurity, bullying or safety concerns, or other problems with peers or teachers.
“The key to improving attendance is finding out and figuring out why kids miss too much school in the first place. That’s both a question for every school and every district to figure out,” Chang said.
Relationships are essential to building attendance, she said. Her research shows that districts should start with family outreach, and communicate clear attendance expectations, and then escalate to direct intervention with community resources as needed.
According to district data provided by the state after the hearing, school districts’ chronic absenteeism rates varied widely last year. But districts with the most children missing school days were all located off the road system, with communities accessible only by plane or boat.
The districts with the highest chronic absenteeism rates were the Lower Kuskokwim River-area Yupiit School District (81%), Northwest Arctic Borough School District (71%), Bering Strait School District (68%), Hydaburg City School District (68%) and Lower Yukon School District (68%).
The districts with the lowest chronic absenteeism rates were the Yukon-Koyukuk School District in Fairbanks (17%), Southeast Island School District (23%), Galena City School District (25%) and the Petersburg School District (29%).
Alaska districts are required to have an attendance policy, and protocols to prevent and reduce truancy — which vary from students being barred from certain activities, to community service hours, to court proceedings and penalties, according to district websites.
Soldotna Rep. Justin Ruffridge questioned whether truancy laws are being enforced. “Many countries that excel in education, I think we talk a lot in this committee about Finland — Finland has very serious consequences. It’s against the law for your children to not be in school,” he said.
“We have sort of developed a culture of ‘It’s OK to not be in school’ and that it’s up to the teacher to make school to be awesome and fun. Well, school is not always awesome and fun. Sometimes it’s hard to get kids to want to go to school. I’m a parent. I know how hard it is every day to get your kid up,” he said.
Lawmakers and speakers noted Alaska is unique: From extended sports travel and cultural and traditional Alaska Native subsistence activities, students may miss school days but not necessarily educational opportunities.
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