Michigan had the biggest improvement in the nation in its chronic student absenteeism rate but ranked seventh highest among states during the 2022-23 school year, according to a new analysis by The Associated Press and The Detroit News.

Years after COVID-19 upended American schooling, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance, according to data collected by the AP and Stanford University economist Thomas Dee.

Chronic absenteeism — defined as when a student misses 10% or more of school days or 18 days or more in Michigan — improved slightly in U.S. schools in the 2022-23 school year, but remains above pre-pandemic levels, the AP analysis shows.

Roughly 1 in 4 students in the 2022-23 school year remained chronically absent. That represents about 12 million children in the 42 states and Washington, D.C., where the data is available. The numbers are a slight improvement from 28% in 2021-22 but far above pre-pandemic levels, when the national rate stood at 15%.

The states that saw the biggest improvements from the 2021-22 to 2022-23 school years in absolute percentage point change were Michigan (down 7.7 percentage points), Massachusetts (-5.5), Texas (-5.4), California (-5.1), Rhode Island (-5.1) and North Carolina (-4.5). However, chronic absenteeism remains extremely high in all those states; for example, it remains above 30% in Michigan, which has the seventh-highest chronic absenteeism rate of any state.

The states with the highest levels of chronic absenteeism as of 2023 were Alaska (45%), New Mexico (39%), Oregon (38%), Nevada (35%) and Colorado (31%). Washington, D.C., also neared the top of the list, at 44%. The states with the lowest chronic absenteeism rates were New Jersey (17%), Idaho (17%), Alabama (18%), Indiana (19%), and Wisconsin (20%).

The analysis estimates millions more kids continue to be chronically absent compared with before the pandemic and in most states, absence rates remain stubbornly high, they only slightly improved or, in a few cases, worsened between the 2021-22 to 2022-23 years.

Emotional and behavioral problems also have kept kids home from school. University of Southern California research shared exclusively with the AP found strong relationships between absenteeism and poor mental health.

For example, in the USC study, almost a quarter of chronically absent kids had high levels of emotional or behavioral problems, according to a parent questionnaire, compared with just 7% of kids with good attendance. Emotional symptoms among teen girls were especially linked with missing lots of school.

“These different things that we’re all concerned about are all interconnected,” said Morgan Polikoff, a USC education professor and one of the lead researchers.

What’s behind Michigan’s problem

The national update follows a Detroit News series on chronic absenteeism in Michigan that found that students from kindergarten through high school have been avoiding school at record rates since school buildings reopened after the pandemic more than three years ago.

About one-third of Michigan’s K-12 students — or 434,241 — missed 10% or more of school last school year, a level that remained far above absenteeism rates experienced before the COVID-19 pandemic. About 30.8% of Michigan students were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, compared to 19.7% in 2018-19.

Data from the most recent school year, 2023-34, will be available this fall in Michigan.

Students are missing school for a variety of reasons that involve their home life, the impact of poverty or physical and mental health ailments.

Some students aren’t in school because they have to watch younger siblings or care for parents with medical problems. Others need to continue working at jobs they started during the pandemic. Some kids are overcome by anxiety and can’t leave the house, let alone spend a full day in school. Some have become homeless for part of the year or changed schools several times. In many cases, kids said they simply don’t want to go to school and parents let them stay home.

Education experts said chronic absenteeism is one of the biggest problems facing American schools right now because it undermines widespread academic recovery efforts underway to catch students up from the learning losses during the last three school years when many spent months, even years, away from classrooms, schedules, adults and peers.

The issue is at a crisis point locally and nationally. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan told The News at the Mackinac Policy Conference on June 1 that getting students back into classrooms post-COVID is the biggest issue facing Michigan. In May, the White House held a summit to address concerns about America’s chronic absenteeism crisis.

Attendance Works, a national nonprofit that works to reduce chronic absence among K-12 students, distinguishes between truancy and chronic absenteeism. Truancy happens when a student misses school without an excuse, such as skipping school. Chronic absenteeism incorporates all absences: excused, unexcused and suspensions.

How Michigan is responding

Michigan education officials said local school districts have engaged in several efforts to improve attendance rates such calls to parents, conferences with families, mental health interventions and door-to-door outreach to visit students’ homes to help reacclimate children to coming to school more frequently.

Michigan Department of Education officials have provided schools with an early intervention dropout prevention program called the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System. The seven-step process examines data and makes decisions about supports and interventions to help students get back on track for graduation and success. The state also trains and certifies coaches who provide intervention and monitoring training across the state, department spokesman Bob Wheaton said.

“The Michigan Department of Education has provided support to efforts that have paid off, with Michigan being identified in a national report as improving chronic absenteeism rates the most of any of the states included in the study,” Wheaton said.

A new campaign addressing school attendance in Metro Detroit launched this week. “In Class Is Where It’s At” focuses on improving student attendance with advertisements throughout the 2024-25 school year in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

It’s the first tri-county campaign to speak directly to Metro Detroit students and their families and provide resources they may need for helping to get to school and improve their attendance, officials said.

Resources are organized by county and school community to support school attendance, engagement and overall student well-being, officials said. The tri-county collaborative aims to help families ensure their students have a successful school experience, said Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency Superintendent Daveda Colbert.

“School is for everyone, and it starts with building trust between our teachers, staff and our students and their families, Colbert said. “Our schools are here to serve as partners for our children, their families and communities across Wayne County and the state, to be a resource in helping meet their needs to ensure their child is able to attend school regularly.”

Wayne RESA is also concentrating on professional development and coaching opportunities to empower educators to change what Colbert calls the power dynamics with their students and families from problem focused to partnership focused to improve students attendance. Wayne RESA serves 33 public school districts and 97 public school academies making it the largest intermediate school district in the state.

Data shows that of the 2022-23 students who were chronically absent in Wayne County’s ISD, 72% were unhoused or facing homelessness. Wayne RESA created the Families Living in Transition website to provide services and resources to families struggling to secure consistent housing, officials said. The Wayne County Regionalized Homeless Support program also offers assistance to families who are currently in transition and experiencing homelessness.