Chronic absenteeism used by 36 states in ESSA accountability

[Candace Cortiella]

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to develop a new accountability system that annually differentiates public school performance. Under ESSA, the system of accountability must include four academic indicators plus one or more new measures of an indicator called “school quality or student success” (20 U.S.C. §§6311(c)(4)(B)(v)).

To meet this new requirement the majority of states (36 and D.C.) have chosen to measure student chronic absenteeism – either as the sole metric or one of a group of metrics. While many states have been paying attention to chronic absenteeism in recent years, elevating it to a component of a state accountability system heightens the attention this important metric will receive.

We collaborated with Attendance Works on this blog that includes important recommendations to ensure that this enhanced focus on attendance doesn’t have unintended negative consequences for students with disabilities.

Read it at http://www.attendanceworks.org/essa-implementation-keeping-students-with-disabilities-in-school/

Candace Cortiella
The Advocacy Institute

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