Post-Pandemic School Absenteeism Rises, Especially in Disadvantaged Areas

Primary Drivers of Post-Pandemic Absences

Among the 11 distinct reasons students reported for missing school, illness, lack of sleep, boredom, and safety concerns emerged as the dominant factors driving chronic absenteeism. According to the data, illness remains the most common reason for missing school, reported by nearly 75 percent of students pre-pandemic and rebounding to 77 percent in the post-pandemic period. Absences due to illness stayed elevated in the 2024 school year compared to 2020, rising by 3.6 percentage points for elementary students, 2.4 percentage points for middle schoolers, and 3.2 percentage points for high schoolers.

Lack of sleep accounted for absences among 24 percent of students overall across all years. High school students reported the highest rates of sleep-related absences at 33 percent, followed by middle school students at 23 percent and elementary students at 15 percent. While elementary and high school sleep-related absences declined post-pandemic, middle school students experienced an increase, recording rates just over 4 percentage points higher in 2024 than in 2020.

Behavioral and Safety Factors in Absenteeism

Safety concerns and boredom also influenced attendance patterns, though with notable grade-level variations. Roughly 5 percent of all students reported safety-related absences, with middle schoolers and students in high-poverty schools registering the highest rates. According to the findings, concerns regarding feeling unsafe, bullying, and embarrassment increased among elementary and middle school students post-pandemic. Conversely, high school students reported slightly lower and stable rates of safety-related absences.

Absences attributed to boredom remained a lower-incidence category, cited by 11 percent of students overall. However, elementary and middle school students experienced slight post-pandemic upticks in boredom-related absences in 2024 compared to 2020, with increases of 1.4 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points, respectively. In contrast, high school students reported a 1.8 percentage-point decrease in boredom-related absences over the same timeframe.

International Comparisons and Disadvantaged Communities

Rising chronic absenteeism is not confined to the United States. A parallel report released by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Ireland revealed that school absence levels have grown since the pandemic with little sign of improvement. Co-author Emer Smyth noted that disadvantaged communities experience the most severe attendance barriers. In urban band one DEIS schools in Ireland—institutions serving the most disadvantaged profiles—over a third of students miss more than 20 days of school, double the rate observed in non-DEIS schools.