Posted on February 5, 2025
Chronic absenteeism is a complex problem. We must start with a focus on the individual needs and circumstances of the student to understand why the child is not attending school and to engage the parents in a meaningful way.
TO: Members of the Senate Education Committee
FROM: Nina C. Peckman, Staff Attorney, Advocates for Children of New Jersey
DATE: January 30, 2025
RE: Chronic Absenteeism
Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) appreciates the opportunity to provide testimony regarding the issue of chronic absenteeism in New Jersey schools.
ACNJ is a nonpartisan child advocacy organization that engages members of the public, policy makers, and other stakeholders to advance policies and programs that benefit children. I am the education attorney at Advocates for Children of New Jersey. ACNJ’s Kid Law Center has been in existence since 1996 and has secured the education rights of over 10,000 children. On an annual basis, I provide education advocacy assistance to about 350 poor and low-income parents and their children residing throughout the State of New Jersey as well as to professionals who work with children and families.
Although attendance barriers and chronic absenteeism has always been an issue, since the pandemic, the percentage of my cases with these issues have greatly increased. According to my cases, the common reasons for absences are due to unaddressed chronic health issues including mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, fear of bullying or violence in the school, inability to get to school because of transportation issues and loss of interest due in part to unaddressed academic problems or when the student's social emotional and/or behavioral issues aren't being addressed effectively.
Other factors also seem to be driving the chronic absenteeism problem. First, some districts don’t have enough school staff to support the education and behavioral health needs of students or may not have the requisite experience to identify the reasons for the absences and how best to help the student. Second, many students remain home because parents are not getting the information they need to support their child’s attendance through basic information about attendance laws and what are the school based services available to help their child. Even when parents do know the laws, they don't know how to advocate or appeal school actions or inactions when their child is not going to school because of one of the issues mentioned above. Third, too often, some districts use truancy charges or simply blame parents for the problem and don’t acknowledge the parents’ efforts to help their child, while ignoring all the steps that school staff should have taken as soon as the child first started to miss too many school days.
One thing is clear, the time to address attendance issues effectively is as soon as they become an issue. Both the attendance and intervention and referral regulations require the school to directly engage the parent and child when there are too many unexcused absences which the attendance regulations deem to be up to four unexcused absences. Schools must also have a process to identify and address the attendance issues of students with excessive excused absences for chronic health issues as schools have a responsibility to ensure that those children are receiving an appropriate education. Once a child is chronically absent, it is much more difficult to address the underlying reasons in a way that will help the child stay in school and thrive academically. In my experience of advocating for children who have serious attendance issues, the best approach and the one that leads to the best outcome is when school staff, parents and relevant community providers collaborate in creating a plan to help the student. Schools who simply try to address the issues with a cookie cutter, fill in the box approach are going to have a very difficult time trying to fulfill their responsibilities to educate children in these circumstances. Chronic absenteeism is a complex problem and is very difficult to address. To try to solve this issue, we must start with a focus on the individual needs and circumstances of the child who is missing school to understand why that child is not attending school and to engage the child’s parents in a meaningful way to ensure the child receives an appropriate education.
Here are descriptions of two recent cases involving parents who sought advocacy assistance from ACNJ regarding attendance issues. They illustrate both the impact of school absences and how the relevant laws and policies can be implemented to reduce the chronic absenteeism numbers. A parent contacted us regarding a classified student with severe depression and school phobia due to a history of bullying. The student had been absent for more than 50 school days for each of three consecutive years. The parent sought a therapeutic school placement with home instruction pending placement based upon the medical opinions of the student’s treating physicians. The school district insisted that the student should be able to attend the public school. After ACNJ became involved, we facilitated communications between school staff and several community providers working with the student. We also advocated for additional mental health evaluations. Through several collaborative meetings, the district agreed to place this student in a therapeutic school and make up instructional hours for the student through tutoring.
Another example is a case involving a classified child with cognitive delays and complex health issues including being medically fragile. Because of these disabilities, the student’s only placement option is in the home setting with an in person instructor. The school had been providing home instruction up until a year ago when the parent started to refuse the home instruction because the parent was not seeing any progress. The district responding by filing truancy charges. Prior to contacting ACNJ, the parent did not understand the compulsory education laws and rather than refusing home instruction, that parent could have challenged the education program that the district was providing through special education laws. Once we explained the laws and the parent’s rights, the parent agreed to the home instruction services and we put in motion a process to secure additional services for the student while in the home setting. This resolved the attendance issue.
Thank you for your consideration of this testimony. Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to: npeckman@acnj.org.
