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New York City’s chronic absenteeism rate remains stubbornly high, with 1 in 3 students missing at least 10% of the 2025-26 school year, according to figures released Thursday.
The rate remained unchanged from 2024-25 before and is markedly higher than pre-pandemic levels, when about 1 in 4 children were chronically absent.
Missing school means missed learning time, and chronic absenteeism is often linked to poor academic outcomes. The city’s Education Department is ramping up efforts to ensure students show up by overhauling its attendance policies in June and asking schools to develop intervention strategies.
The new regulations offer examples of what might help, “such as Success Mentors, extracurricular activities, mental health support, referrals to support services, a walking school bus, etc.” Every school is required to add a school avoidance liaison this year to address when students miss large stretches of school because of social or emotional disabilities, such as severe anxiety or depression.
“For chronically absent students,” the new regulations state, “schools should work with parents and students to create attendance success plans to identify barriers to attendance and create strategies and goals to prevent future absences.”
Chronic absenteeism skyrocketed to 40%, the highest level in decades, during the COVID pandemic when students returned full-time to their classrooms during the 2021-22 school year. And though the rates have decreased since then, the latest figure — 33.5% — released Thursday in the Mayor’s Management Report (a compendium of performance data from city agencies), reveals how challenging it is for schools to move the needle. The hurdles are highest for the neediest students, particularly those who are homeless. Students with disabilities also struggle with attendance, often exacerbated by busing-related issues.
“There are these socioeconomic factors that sort of weigh in, and that’s where it becomes really complex,” said Dr. Kenya Parks, the medical director of the pediatric school-based health program and associate professor of general pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “But for us as pediatricians, we’re equally concerned because we know that especially those children that start out early on not coming to school they have a pretty poor prognosis throughout life, jobwise, health-wise, even quality of life.”
Parks said she’d like to see the educational and medical systems collaborate to support attendance.
“Both pediatricians and educational specialists know that creating places where kids and adolescents are supported, feel welcome, really has a positive effect,” she said. “So the key is try to find out how.”
Education Department officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.
