School absences and truancy are major problems for educators and students at all levels of schooling. Teachers struggle to accommodate pupils with many absences, leading to extra work and frustration. Administrators are put under stress by widespread absenteeism, which affects school funding and overall success. Students suffer from the adverse effects of absenteeism most of all, as it causes deficits in academic performance. Missed days rapidly put young children behind their peers, and continued absences make it difficult to catch up. For children in middle or high school, chronic absences correlate with a greater likelihood of dropping out.
Numerous studies have explored absenteeism, giving us a more detailed picture of the problem. According to a 2007 National Center for Children in Poverty study, the average kindergartner misses five days of school. However, 11 percent of kindergartners are "chronic absentees" who missed 18 days or more. Children in poverty miss far more days on average than other kids, with almost three times as many chronic absentees coming from poor families. School absences are statistically linked to poorer performance in both reading and math on standardized tests, a link that is even more striking for children in poverty, who often lack the support system and resources to compensate.
The most obvious reasons for school absence are illness and injury, factors which are acutely affected by poverty. Impoverished families find it more difficult to supply sufficient, nutritious food, which contributes to a variety of health problems. Kids living in poor areas are more likely to live in old houses that contain lead and other toxins, be injured in unsafe neighborhoods, or suffer from asthma due to urban pollution. Families in poverty are often under high stress, causing increases in child abuse.
Even if a child is not sick or injured, other poverty-related issues can keep him away from school. Low-income families are likely to have both parents in the workforce, making transportation and childcare a complicated hardship. A babysitter quitting, a shift change at work, or a sudden illness in the family can disrupt a child's school attendance severely if the family does not have the resources to be flexible. Students in poverty, suffering under the same increased stress as their parents, are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking, unsafe sex, and drug use -- all of which may cause problems that result in absences. Unfortunately, schools in poor areas often lack the resources to reach out to absentee students, because of their diminished funding, difficulty recruiting quality staff and lower levels of parental involvement.