One in three New York City public school students was chronically absent last school year, which is defined as missing at least 10% of school days, according to statistics released Wednesday.
That represents a slight dip from the 2023-24 school year, when 34.8% of students were chronically absent. But it is still considerably higher than pre-pandemic levels, when chronic absenteeism rates hovered closer to 1 in 4 children.
Attendance is considered a key metric for school performance for a commonsense reason: Missed school typically means missed learning.
Chronic absenteeism exploded to 40%, the highest level in decades, during the COVID pandemic when students returned full-time to their classrooms during the 2021-22 school year, following the city’s pivot to remote learning.
