Oklahoma Education and You

Enough schools in Oklahoma complained until the state legislature removed the Chronic Absenteeism component of the Oklahoma Schools Report Cards. The 2025-26 report card will no longer include Chronic Absenteeism as a component. The argument for removal was that student attendance is out of the school’s control, so why should schools be graded on it?

However, if we aren’t going to evaluate the teaching of the most basic skill needed to accomplish anything in life, then what is the purpose of education? Schools exist to serve the public good, and the country needs people who understand the importance of honoring commitments. Being a student entails responsibility.  

Every student in the school owes it to their peers to arrive on time, do their best, and not distract from others’ learning. In turn, the school’s responsibility is to do its best to help every child succeed.  

The link between attendance and academic achievement is clear. Chronic non-attendance harms learning beyond students who miss school. Chronically absent students require more teacher attention and school resources. Attention and resources that students with good attendance don’t receive.

While there is some truth to the argument that it’s not the school’s fault students are absent, we know there are evidence-based strategies to improve attendance. The danger is that, now that schools are no longer graded on attendance, the incentive to address it will disappear. That would be a shame.

Schools should use the tools at their disposal to address poor attendance. Here are some steps every school should take.

First, the school should set expectations for attendance early, often, and publicly.

 Set the expectation early, often, and publicly that attendance isn’t a suggestion. It’s the first assignment of the day. Post the standard in every classroom and communicate it in every handbook, syllabus, and parent meeting:

Make school a place students want to come to. Ensure it is orderly and maintain clear routines in every classroom. Celebrate student successes often, particularly effort and growth.

Create clubs, teams, and activities that give students a reason to belong.

Track attendance daily at the building and district office levels, and define criteria to tier students for intervention once absences reach thresholds. If a student fails a quiz, the teacher notices. If a student misses school, the system should notice just as fast. Monitor weekly “at-risk” lists of students trending toward chronic absence.

Communicate absences in real time. If a student is absent, families should be notified that day via same-day texts/calls.

Schools should remove “soft barriers” to attendance by ensuring bus routes are easily accessible, drop-off routines are efficient and straightforward, and bullying issues are addressed promptly by removing students who cause them.

Schools must protect students’ learning time for those with good attendance. Schools should provide structured catch-up times, such as intervention blocks, after-school tutoring, or tutoring labs, so that interventions do not detract from classroom instruction.

Second, once students begin to slide, schools have to intervene. They should respond promptly to specific triggers, such as 3 absences in a month, a pattern of missing on Mondays or Fridays, or frequent early checkouts. Schools should respond quickly and compassionately with a call from a real person at the school to set up meetings with an administrator to help resolve issues that are blocking attendance. 

Administrators may assign an adult mentor to each identified student. That mentor shows students that the school cares. Mentors check in with students daily for less than a minute, often to see if anything is coming up that might cause the student to miss. Mentors also serve as encouragers.

They can require supportive, not punitive, attendance contracts. These contracts have specific goals, such as “no more than 1 absence in the next 10 school days.”  Contracts have supports such as bus passes, counselor check-ins, and morning routine support. They include clear next steps if the plan fails.

Schools need make-up work systems that don’t punish teachers or classmates. They should have a consistent “catch-up window” during the school day, such as RTI periods. Teacher assistants can be valuable resources for this. Provide a single location to find missing work, such as Google Classroom, and ensure teachers post assignments.

Finally, the school must have a plan for students who become chronically absent.  

They can create case management teams and pay them for their work. Don’t put all of this on a single overworked person. Teams should include a counselor, administrator, and a teacher representative. The team develops the intervention plan and monitors it, identifying specific barriers to attendance, such as transportation, housing instability, mental health issues, family crises, and safety concerns.

Administrators should conduct home visits and re-engagement meetings when appropriate. Sometimes families don’t respond to calls for various reasons. Meetings should be positive, solution-focused, and connect families to community supports, health services, and counseling when needed.

Students should be referred to high-quality alternative education settings when appropriate. 

The district must strengthen the system by using legal tools, withholding credit, and, as a last resort, retaining students in the same grade after documented support. Schools may enforce attendance expectations. But enforcement without support is just punishment, and punishment doesn’t rebuild habits.

The legislature may have removed chronic absenteeism from the report card score, but that doesn’t remove the obligation. If schools let attendance slide because it no longer “counts,” the people who pay the price are the students who are absent—and the students who aren’t.