Reducing Chronic Absenteeism Among Young Learners

Chronic absenteeism has reached alarming levels post-pandemic and is now a pressing national policy concern. Most interventions aimed at mitigating absenteeism focus on children in elementary or secondary school. This is unfortunate because rates of absenteeism are just as high among children in preschool and kindergarten. The proposed research implements a large-scale randomized controlled trial to test an intervention to reduce chronic absenteeism among preschool and kindergarten children in low-income families. The proposed experimental research will implement and evaluate a scalable intervention with 2,400 families in preschool and kindergarten during eight months. Our two main outcomes are attendance rate and a measure of chronic absenteeism. We will also assess whether the program improves student test scores and reduces behavioral referrals. Through a partnership with Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS), we will collect administrative data on attendance and academic outcomes for our sample through our cohort’s 1st grade school year. Upon successful completion of our study, we will be well-positioned to scale our program across preschool networks and school districts nation-wide.