Too many students across Michigan are missing too much time at school and falling further behind their peers. We must come together as a state to address this problem head-on so we can fulfill our promise to provide every student with the opportunity to succeed.

Chronic absenteeism is defined by a student missing 10% or more of instructional time, which can have a dramatic impact on a student’s ability to keep up with their schoolwork. The more a student misses, the further they fall behind, making it that much more difficult to catch up.

The percentage of students considered chronically absent increased dramatically during the pandemic, and our recovery to pre-pandemic numbers has been slow. In 2019, about 15% of students nationwide met the criteria for chronic absenteeism, according to

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