Rapaport & Polikoff: Reasons include stricter rules on returning sick kids to school, lack of hands-on learning, family crises, online options.

By Friend Rapporte & Morgan Polisoff

This story first appeared at The 74a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

A version of this essay appeared on the FutureEd blog.

Though chronic absenteeism has declined from its post-COVID peak, too many students are still missing too much school. Research shows that absent students fall behind academically and are more likely to drop out of high school and face long-term social and economic consequences than those who attend regularly. Worse, the highest rates of absence are concentrated among low-income children and others for whom attendance is especially important.

As part of our research into American families’ perspectives on a range of post-COVID education issues, we conducted in-depth interviews with 40 parents across 17 geographically and demographically diverse states last spring about their children’s post-pandemic school attendance. The conversations yielded valuable insights for both educators and education policymakers.

Nearly every parent pointed to illness as the main reason their child missed school. Since the pandemic, both cultural norms and school rules have shifted toward greater caution. Many districts now require children to be fever-free for 24 to 72 hours before returning to class. While parents say they appreciate the focus on health, many also worry the new, blanket rules keep students home unnecessarily. “(Girls) sometimes throw up because their menstrual cramps are so bad,” said one mother, explaining her daughter’s increased absences. “Do they really need to be out for 72 hours?”

Parents urged schools to distinguish between truly contagious illnesses and mild symptoms that don’t warrant days at home. There’s a need, it seems, for school administrators to work with public health experts to refine guidelines so they balance safety with the importance of in-person learning.

Parents were also clear that children are disengaged. Words like “boring,” “irrelevant,” and “drudgery” came up repeatedly in our interviews. Many felt that schools put too much emphasis on standardized testing at the expense of real-world skills.

Families want schools to invest in hands-on learning, more relevant curricula and environments where students feel excited to show up. Attendance, in their view, improves when schools are places where kids genuinely want to be.

But behind many cases of chronic absence were unique family crises: a parent’s death, loss of housing or a child’s chronic illness. Parents told us that generic reminders or attendance incentives don’t address these realities and sometimes feel like nagging or shaming.

As one parent urged: “Focus on the individual — what is happening with this kid? Administrators can build trust by approaching families with empathy, asking questions to understand the causes of each child’s attendance patterns and connecting them with targeted supports rather than relying solely on broad policies.

Finally, and particularly troubling, we found that the nationwide transition to online learning during the pandemic fundamentally changed the culture of school-going. Because of the widespread use of online platforms, many students can quickly make up missed work when they are absent. This well-intentioned support leaves parents (and the children themselves) believing students are not missing anything when not in school.

Parents described the ease with which students log in to portals to view videos, see the work they missed, obtain notes or complete worksheets. Or they cited helpful teachers providing homework packets for students to complete, particularly when the absence was planned in advance. While parents value this support for catching up after a missed day, the ease of accessing missed material, combined with grade inflation and policies that encourage unlimited late assignments and retakes, can further the perception that being at school in person is not important for staying on track, dampening student motivation and engagement.

As one parent explained: “Post-COVID, it’s so much easier to make up your work … it makes it less of a big deal to miss a school day.” Another said: “After COVID, it doesn’t even matter if a child is in the classroom, because they put the agenda online and you can watch the lesson.” This perception directly conflicts with decades of research — and the experience of students during the pandemic — showing that missing class in person harms both academic and social development. Administrators should consider messaging that acknowledges families’ challenges while making explicit what students stand to lose — especially academic achievement and relationship-building — when they aren’t physically present.

Parents’ perspectives are a reminder that chronic absenteeism isn’t just a numbers problem, it’s a lived experience shaped by health concerns, cultural shifts, school climate and family circumstances. Parents are not indifferent; they want to partner with schools. Educators can help by refining illness policies, investing in engaging instruction and tackling the troubling post-pandemic misconception that absences don’t matter.