Abstract
Chronic absence from school is a growing concern among education researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and families (Germain et al., 2024). Despite more emphasis and research on chronic absenteeism following the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of chronic absenteeism remain high across the United States (U.S. Department of Education, 2025a). Chronic absence from school, defined as missing 10 percent of days enrolled for any reason, can result in harmful educational outcomes for students when compounded over time (Chang & Romero, 2008; Balfanz & Byrnes, 2018; Gottfried, 2014). Academic effects include lower test scores compared to peers, not learning to read by third grade, lower middle school achievement, and high school dropout (Applied Survey Research, 2011; Smernillo et al., 2018; Balfanz et al., 2007). Other effects include lags in important social and emotional skills and decreased access to critical resources (Yin et al., 2023; Gottfried, 2014; Ready, 2010).
Existing literature on chronic absence identifies complex root causes for absences (Attendance Works, 2022) and suggests leadership practices for school principals (Attendance Works, 2025b). Leadership for school improvement has a strong literature base (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Grissom et al., 2021), however, there is a gap in a multidisciplinary team approach to supporting attendance. This study addresses the problem of chronic absenteeism in Title I elementary schools in rural contexts by investigating how some leadership teams are successfully improving student attendance despite the ongoing challenges associated with the phenomenon of chronic absence.
Utilizing three domains of effective school leadership from the Ontario Leadership Framework (Leithwood, 2012), recommended practices for school principals (Attendance works, 2025) and the distributed leadership perspective (Spillane et al., 2004; Spillane & Camburn, 2006; Halverson, 2003), this study posited that attendance-supportive leadership teams coordinate a system of practice that leads to a reduction in rates of absenteeism through their perceptions, their design of policies and practices, and through key interactions and artifacts of their intentions.
This qualitative case study examined three elementary schools within one school division that stand out as examples of “positive deviance” (Pascale et al., 2010) using a purposeful sampling method (Maxwell, 2009). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with three school principals and focus group discussions with a total of 13 participants whose roles included assistant principal, school counselor, special education teacher, and classroom teacher.
The findings revealed that the system of practice is coordinated through attendance-supportive leadership team membership, interactions between students and families, school-based staff, and central office and external staff, and a tiered approach to supporting attendance. The findings underscore the importance of the assistant principal in facilitating these interactions and highlight a progression of data monitoring and interventions. Recommendations for school principals and division leaders include strategic hiring and developing assistant principals, developing common attendance data review protocols, developing a family engagement program, and fostering partnerships with local employers, state agencies, and rural school networks.
