During the pandemic, national chronic absenteeism rates surged across all demographics, but what has happened to chronic absenteeism rates since then?

Are chronic absenteeism rates back to pre-pandemic levels? Is chronic absenteeism less of a problem for students who weren’t yet in school during the pandemic? And where might chronic absenteeism rates end up when all the dust settles?

On this episode of The Report Card, Elli Lucas discusses these questions, and more, with Nat Malkus.

Nat Malkus is a senior fellow and the deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies. He is the creator of AEI’s Return to Learn Tracker, which tracked pandemic school closures and masking policies and currently tracks post-pandemic chronic absenteeism, and the host of the podcast The Report Card with Nat Malkus.

This episode was produced by Elli Lucas.

Show Notes:

From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025

Please Excuse My Child: Unexcused Absences in Student Attendance and Achievement

Catching Absenteeism Early and Often: Introducing the AEI Absence Forecast

AEI Absence Forecast

What Stories Does Daily Attendance Tell? Student Attendance Patterns Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

AEI’s Chronic Absenteeism Research Working Group (CARWG)

Teacher and Student Absences Before and After the Pandemic

The 50% Challenge