Chronic Absenteeism in West Virginia Schools
This Science & Technology Note provides data on the rates of chronic absenteeism in West Virginia, explains the effects of chronic absenteeism on students, provides theories for the elevated rate of chronic absenteeism, and focuses on teacher home visits as a potential way to address chronic absenteeism in the state.
Research Highlights
23% of West Virginia’s students were considered chronically absent in the 2024-2025 school year.
Chronic absenteeism can be linked to multiple factors, including student, family, school, and community factors.
Increasing student attendance requires school- and district-specific efforts, but common areas of focus include attendance tracking, increased communication with parents, and incentivizing attendance.
Data from the 2024-2025 school year shows that 23% of West Virginia students were absent for more than 10% of the school year (18 days). This Science & Technology Note explains the effects that chronic absenteeism may have on students, notes some of the leading theories for why chronic absenteeism rates have remained high after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and identifies best practices for encouraging student attendance.
What Effect Does Chronic Absenteeism Have on Students?
West Virginia, along with the majority of other states, defines chronic absenteeism as missing more than 10% of instructional days for any reason (with the exception of out-of-school suspension). This is different from truancy, where only unexcused absences apply to the absence count.
Chronic absenteeism rose sharply following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and is slowly dropping.
Adapted from West Virginia Balanced Scorecard and Return2Learn Tracker
Chronic absenteeism is linked with several indicators of a student's future success. Chronically absent students generally have worse academic outcomes, higher school drop-out rates, lower future salary projections, and an increased risk of arrest. 11% of students who chose to attend college and had been chronically absent in high school re-enrolled for a second year of college compared to 51% of students who chose to attend college and were not chronically absent in high school.
Chronic absenteeism not only affects the absent student, but their peers as well. Frequent absences can force teachers into continuous remedial instruction, making it difficult for academic progress to be made. Especially in younger grades, chronic absenteeism makes it difficult to establish class routines and a positive classroom culture.
Causes of Chronic Absenteeism
There are many theories for why students are chronically absent, and absences are often a multifactorial problem that can be extremely school- and district-specific. Leading reasons for chronic absenteeism can be broadly categorized into student, family, school, and community-specific factors (see table). Chronic absenteeism in elementary school was strongly linked to family factors, while chronic absenteeism in high school was linked more strongly to student and school-specific factors. Families may be used to the increased availability of online resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing the emphasis on in-person attendance. They may also be taking illnesses more seriously after the pandemic, keeping their children at home for mild symptoms that may not necessitate staying home. Familial education levels may also contribute to chronic absenteeism - in families whose parents had a high school diploma, 33% of K-12 students said missing 3 or more weeks of school was okay, while in families whose parents had at least some college experience, the percentage dropped to 24%. Additionally, school location may be a key factor in chronic absenteeism rates. Urban school districts nationwide are 5-6 times more likely to report chronic absenteeism than rural and suburban districts.
| Student-specific | Physical health issues, mental health issues, behavioral difficulties, bullying, disabilities, boredom, teen parenthood |
|---|---|
| Family-specific | Unstable housing, poverty, parental health, parental involvement, food insecurity |
| School-specific | Poor school facilities, teacher shortages, lack of safe transportation, teacher disengagement and fatigue, class and extracurricular choices available to students, lack of funding to implement programs |
| Community-specific | Lack of future prospects, poor community support, unsafe neighborhoods |
Chronic Absenteeism in West Virginia and Strategies to Address it
Chronic absenteeism is an area of concern in West Virginia and across the country. 40% of US schools identified chronic absenteeism as one of their top three concerns in the 2024-2025 school year. In the 2024-2025 school year, 23% of West Virginia’s students were chronically absent, matching the national average. This is an improvement over previous years, but is still higher than the sub-20% rates that were common before 2020. Rates of chronic absenteeism in West Virginia are higher in high schools and middle schools than elementary schools.
To address chronic absenteeism, West Virginia, along with several other states, has implemented ‘collaborative approach’ legislation to improve attendance rates. West Virginia passed SB 568 in 2024, implementing the collaborative approach and requiring schools to make contact with parents to determine the reason for student absences and develop a support plan to assist the student in attending school. Additional existing consequences for chronic absenteeism in West Virginia include driver’s license restrictions for students aged 15-17. Punitive measures are generally considered to be ineffective at increasing attendance. 16 states, including West Virginia, prohibit suspending students for chronic absenteeism. Common methods of improving student attendance rates used in partnership with a collaborative approach model include intensive attendance monitoring and tracking, increased communication and guardian involvement, attendance incentives, after-school programs, and community mentoring programs.
One option that many states have implemented is teacher home visits designed to build communication, connections, and collaborations between teachers and families. West Virginia is not currently involved in the Parent Teacher Home Visits National Network (PTHVNN). In a pilot program with 1st-5th graders in Washington, DC, implementing teacher home visits improved attendance by 24%. As of 2025, districts in 29 states, Washington, DC, and one province in Canada have implemented teacher visits. The PTHVNN provides guidelines for implementing these visits, including that visits are voluntary for teachers and families, and that teachers should be compensated for visits outside of their contracted hours.
West Virginia could experience barriers in implementing teacher home visits due to its relatively rural status, requiring teachers to travel greater distances to visit student homes, and requiring more time to complete each visit. Implementing teacher home visits into professional development days could allow teachers to more easily work visits into their schedule, but may run into issues with parent’s employment schedules. Data from the PTHVNN showed that visiting a cross-section of 10% of students made at least some improvement in chronic absence rates, so one way that West Virginia may be able to start to implement home visits may be to visit selections of students to determine if home visits are effective and feasible for the state. Implementing home visits in the state would require buy-in from families, teachers, and district leadership, and may require additional funding for teacher compensation, but has proven to be an effective strategy for decreasing chronic absenteeism in other locations.
This Science and Technology Note was prepared by Madison Flory, PhD, West Virginia Science & Technology Policy Fellow on behalf of the West Virginia Science and Technology Policy (WV STeP) Initiative. The WV STeP Initiative provides nonpartisan research and information to members of the West Virginia Legislature. This Note is intended for informational purposes only and does not indicate support or opposition to a particular bill or policy approach. Please contact info@wvstep.org for more information.