Attendance Support

It is important for every student in Ohio to attend school every day. Attendance studies routinely show the connection between regular attendance and critical school measures such as reading proficiently, performing well academically, and graduating from high school.   

For students to have excellent attendance and high levels of engagement, we all need to work together: schools and districts, teachers and staff, families, communities, and policy makers. As a team, we can improve attendance and lower chronic absence. 

Chronic absence is defined in Ohio as a student missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason – excused, medically excused, unexcused and suspensions. Chronic absenteeism is part of Ohio’s report card as part of Ohio’s Every Student Succeeds Act Plan. Ohio, along with 35 other states, uses chronic absenteeism as a measurement of student success under the Gap Closing Component.  

Chronic absence is different from other commonly tracked attendance metrics such as truancy and Average Daily Attendance (ADA). In Ohio law, a student can only be considered truant based on unexcused hours of missed school. Average Daily Attendance is a school-wide measurement which shows the total hours all students attended school divided by the total hours all students could have attended the school year. Average Daily Attendance tends to mask chronic absence and can make it difficult to see when a school or district has an attendance issue. 

For more information about chronic absence rates at schools and districts, visit Student Recovery Dashboards or Ohio School Report Cards. 

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Last Modified: 9/11/2024 2:26:08 PM

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