Chart of the week: December peak in school absences is higher post-pandemic for D.C.’s students

January 17, 2025
  • Chelsea Coffin
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PHOTO/TED EYTAN. USED WITH PERMISSION. (Source)

In the first year of in-person learning after the pandemic, 48 percent of students were chronically absent, or missed at least 10 percent of the school year (including excused and unexcused absences). This was a large increase over the last pre-pandemic year (school year 2018-19) when 29 percent of students were chronically absent.[1]

This fall, D.C. released new data showing that chronic absenteeism in D.C.’s public schools (including District of Columbia Public Schools, or DCPS, and public charter schools) continued to improve in school year 2023-24. In the two subsequent school years after the return to in-person learning, chronic absenteeism has improved on average by 4 percentage points in each year. Chronic absenteeism has dropped across all major student groups, signaling a steady but slow progress toward the District’s pledge to cut chronic absence in half over five years.[2]

Why did chronic absenteeism increase so dramatically, and why has it stayed high? The D.C. Policy Center requested in-seat attendance data by month from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to examine if there are certain periods where students are most likely to miss school, and which months contribute more to chronic absenteeism. These data show that December is the month where absences have spiked the most in the post-pandemic school years of 2021-22 and 2022-23. In December, 16.3 percent of students were absent on average post-pandemic compared to 10.5 percent of students pre-pandemic. This rise in December absences of 5.8 percentage points is higher than the post-pandemic rise in more typical months of October (3.6 percentage points higher) and May (4.4 percentage points higher).

Some student groups have higher than average increase in absences that mirror in some cases the increases in chronic absenteeism. For at-risk students, December absences are 7.4 percentage points higher post-pandemic, and they are 7.3 percentage points higher for Black students.  However, for some student groups, the December absenteeism increases post-pandemic is higher as a ratio to the increase in a more normal month of October—suggesting that for example, white students or English learners are more likely to stay home post-pandemic during this month due to illness or other reasons, including travel—whereas at-risk students or Black students, or students with disabilities have a smaller proportional increase during December.

One explanation for some of the rise is increased sensitivity to illness. In D.C. Policy Center listening sessions, parents explained that they are now more likely to keep children home when they are sick—meaning that absenteeism will be higher in times of peak illness (for example, in November of school year 2022-23 in the chart below).[3] Illness could be part of the story, but especially given different increases for different student groups, attendance is an issue that needs to be looked at from multiple angles.


[1] Coffin, C. and Mason, H. 2024. State of D.C. Schools, 2022-23: Challenges to pandemic recovery in a new normal. D.C. Policy Center. Retrieved from https://www.dcpolicycenter.org/publications/state-of-dc-schools-2022-23/

[2] Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). 2024. “Bowser Administration Announces Continued Improvement in School Attendance for DC Students.” OSSE. Retrieved from https://osse.dc.gov/release/bowser-administration-announces-continued-improvement-school-attendance-dc-students

[3] Coffin, C. and Mason, H. 2024. State of D.C. Schools, 2022-23: Challenges to pandemic recovery in a new normal. D.C. Policy Center. Retrieved from https://www.dcpolicycenter.org/publications/state-of-dc-schools-2022-23/

Author

Chelsea Coffin

Director of the Education Policy Initiative
D.C. Policy Center

Chelsea Coffin joined the D.C. Policy Center in September 2017 as the Director of the Education Policy Initiative. Her research focuses on how schools connect to broader dynamics in the District of Columbia. She has authored reports on diversity in D.C.’s schools, the D.C. schools with the best improvement for at-risk students, and the transition after high school in D.C. Chelsea has also conducted planning analysis at the D.C. Public Charter School Board, carried out research at the World Bank, and taught secondary school with the Peace Corps in Mozambique.

Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College and a Master of Arts from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) in International Economics and Development.

You can reach Chelsea at chelsea@dcpolicycenter.org.