Joe Vaverchak, a friend and collaborator of the Center for Children’s Advocacy, is recognized for his decades of work serving chronically absent children…. He testified on behalf of the Center’s Raised Senate Bill 1058 that was signed into law as Public Act 15-225 on July 7, 2015, which requires all school districts to track chronic absenteeism, and to institute Student Assistance Review Teams if they have a certain % of chronically absent students.  It also requires SDE to create a chronic absenteeism prevention and intervention plan for use by local school districts.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/opinionator/2015/10/16/stopping-absenteeism-at-the-age-of-5/

What sets the New Britain school district apart isn’t only its deliberate response to the attendance problem; it’s that district officials discovered the problem in the first place. Unlike other school systems, New Britain closely monitors chronic absenteeism, which doesn’t distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. Most school districts focus narrowly on students at risk of becoming “truant” for repeat unexcused absences (the precise definition of truancy varies by state).

In general, efforts to improve attendance are almost exclusively focused on high school students. (Kindergartners, as you might expect, have more interest in skipping rope than skipping class.)

But by high school, addressing habitual absenteeism may be too late. Focusing on truancy instead of chronic absenteeism misses vital early warning signs about the youngest students . . .