It’s been 10 days, do you know where your children are?
More than one-third of New York City public schoolkids — or some 300,000 students — were “chronically absent” last year, according to a blockbuster study out Thursday.
The bombshell findings come as New York students’ test scores in math and reading remain mediocre, despite the state funneling more money into education than any other in the nation.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw the numbers. It’s unbelievable,” said Danyela Souza Egorov, senior policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute think thank and author of the report on chronic absenteeism.
The number of K-12 students deemed chronically absent — or out for 10 days or more in the 180-day school year — has spiked from 26.5% in the 2018-19 term preceding the COVID-19 pandemic to 34.8% in 2023-24.
That means more than 300,000 students out of roughly 900,000 in the country’s largest public school system are frequently missing in action, according to the analysis conducted by the Manhattan Institute.
The results were even more dreadful in upstate school districts, where extensive absenteeism skyrocketed from 41% to 62.2% in Buffalo — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s hometown.
Severe absenteeism shot up from 44.7% to 59.2% in Rochester and 34.7% to 46.8% in Syracuse.
Only in Albany did chronic absenteeism drop, from 37.8% to 31.8%.
The report cites two factors for the surge in kids going MIA from class: a lenient shift in parental attitudes toward attendance in recent years and the state’s “ineffectiveness in its efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism.”
“Even more concerning is the recent decision by New York State to deemphasize chronic absenteeism,” Egorov told The Post.
The state Education Department’s new accountability plan—which it must publish to qualify for some federal funding — has “eliminated chronic absenteeism as a measure of school quality,” the analysis said.
That means how often students actually show up to class “will not be one of the measures by which the state evaluates the performance of school districts,” it said.
In comparison, neighboring Connecticut and Rhode Island are much more aggressively tackling chronic absenteeism, the report said.
But parents are also part of the problem, the study said, having become more lenient post-pandemic about their kids skipping school.
“Some teachers said that remote work has made it easier for some families to keep kids at home on weekdays,” it states.
“In general, many parents have come to believe, as one educator put it, that ‘missing school in non-testing grades is not a big deal.’”
The bad attendance comes despite New York pouring more money into its schools — $89 billion or $36,293 per student — than any state in the nation, with only mediocre results to show for it.
New York students have not fully recovered from learning loss suffered from school lockdowns during the pandemic. Students statewide remain below pre-pandemic levels in reading and math, according to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores results.
One former top city educator said New York is going in the wrong direction with its loose education policies.
“This drives me crazy,” said Eric Nadelstern, a former deputy schools chancellor under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
He noted that absenteeism is closely linked to dropout and graduation rates.
“There’s no more significant indicator of high school completion than having good attendance,” said Nadelstern.
Beyond sagging graduation rates and increased dropout rates, chronic absenteeism has also been linked to negative educational results such as lower grades and standardized test results.
“Missing one or two days of school is associated with academic losses equivalent to 57 fewer days of learning and missing 18 or more days equates to years of lost schooling,” found an Empire Report study from 2023.
The problem is that New York “rewards failure and punishes success,” Nadelstern said, noting the “hold harmless” policy that allows schools to get the same level of state and city funding — even when enrollment plummets.
“It’s the job of the educators to get kids to schools and to make the instruction more engaging. It’s the city and state’s responsibility to hold schools more accountable for attendance,” said Nadelstern.
The hike in chronic absenteeism in the Big Apple school school system has worsened across every demographic and every grade.
The grades that saw the biggest increases were the 1st and 7th, where absenteeism jumped by 10 percentage points, the study found.
But the problem is fixable if educators are laser-focused, the report said.
Charter school educators interviewed said they use a mix of “carrot and sticks” to bolster attendance, focusing on the worst offenders skipping school.
“It’s about having the right attitude, culture and accountability,” said Arthur Samuels, co-founder and executive director of the MESA Charter High School in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Chronic absences often start with students who are late showing up to school, he noted.
“Lateness is a gateway to absence,” Samuels said.
Per MESA’s policy, tardy students are taken to the administrative office and made to call their family on speakerphone to explain why they were late.
MESA’s rate of chronic absenteeism in the 2021–22 school year was 31%, but it dropped to 26% and then to 22% in subsequent years, according to the report.
The city Department of Education and Mayor Eric Adams’ office said chronic absenteeism has come down in recent years, though acknowledged that it is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Chronic absenteeism shot up to 40.7% in the 2021-2022 school during the second year of the pandemic, fell to 36.2% in 2022-2023 to 34.8% last year, city officials noted.
“Since the pandemic, New York City Public Schools has reduced chronic absenteeism over the past three years thanks to strategies that encourage student attendance, including ‘Every Student Every Day’ – providing a range of services and supports in and out of school, working in collaboration with schools, city agencies, shelters, foster care agencies, and community-based organizations,” said DOE spokesperson Nicole Brownstein.
“We also offer professional development to staff and targeted supports to community schools. Additionally, we are supporting districts and schools to help families access food, clothing, and hygiene supplies, as well as counseling, and health services, all of which are barriers to regular attendance. There is much more work to be done to reduce chronic absenteeism, but we are on the right path.”
A City Hall spokesperson added Wednesday night, ““Mayor Adams is laser-focused on ensuring that New York City’s hundreds of thousands of students across all five boroughs receive a world-class education, which includes ensuring that students show up to school each day.”
“We are pairing students with mentors, expanding career and technical education programs….. and sending personalized communication to families. Thanks to the Adams administration’s effective strategy, New York City’s school system is seeing significant downward trends in chronic absenteeism since the pandemic. We look forward to continuing this progress to make sure every student can show up to school and receive the education they deserve.”
