Why Kids Miss School: A Human-Centered Approach to Absenteeism | Dr. Ivory Toldson

Chronic absenteeism keeps getting described as a kid problem, but the evidence tells a different story. When we label students as “disengaged,” we miss what is often right in front of us: unreliable transportation, health crises, caregiving demands, and school policies that punish families for not having options.

I’m joined by Dr. Ivory Toldson, Chief of Research for Concentric Educational Solutions and a professor at Howard University, to unpack insights from his white paper, “Redefining the Attendance Paradigm: A Systemic Analysis of Chronic Absenteeism, Economic Impacts, & Human-Centered Interventions,” built on national data and more than 17,000 ethnographic home visits. We talk about the privilege gap that determines whether a missed bus becomes a minor inconvenience or a full-day absence, and why health-related absences often become “unexcused” through communication breakdowns and paperwork hurdles. We also dig into the gray areas schools struggle with, like when students miss class to care for siblings or help during family emergencies.

We take a hard look at compliance-driven attendance strategies, including truancy penalties and suspensions for tardies, and why those approaches can deepen disengagement rather than improve school attendance. From there, we map out what human-centered interventions look like in practice: home visits that bring resources, clearer excused absence processes, stronger relationships, and policies that prioritize mastery of learning over seat time. We close with a mindset shift that changes everything: stop “fighting absenteeism” and start increasing participation.

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Transcript

Why Attendance Became A Crisis

Dr. Lisa Hassler 0:00

Chronic absenteeism is often treated as a student behavior issue, but recent research suggests that we've been looking at it the wrong way. Welcome to the brighter side of education: research, innovation, and resources. I'm your host, Dr. Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables? And how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? Chronic absenteeism has become one of the defining challenges in education today, with rates remaining significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. National data shows that roughly one in five students, about 23.5%, are now chronically absent, a rate that remains more than 50% higher than before 2020. In March 2026, Dr. Ivory Tolson released a white paper titled Redefining the Attendance Paradigm, a systemic analysis of chronic absenteeism, economic impacts, and human-centered interventions. This research draws on national data alongside insights for more than 17,000 ethnographic home visits conducted across multiple states. What makes this work significant is its clear shift in how absenteeism is understood. Rather than framing attendance as a matter of student motivation or compliance, Tolson's findings identify over 70 distinct barriers to attendance, showing that absenteeism is most often driven by systemic challenges, things like transportation, health, and family instability. When schools respond with punitive measures like truancy policies or legal consequences, research shows that these approaches can actually deepen disengagement rather than solve it. In contrast, human-centered approaches, these grounded in relationships, trust, and understanding root causes demonstrate measurable success in re-engaging students. What emerges is a very different understanding of why students miss school and what it actually takes to bring them back. Here to discuss the shift is Dr. Ivory Tolson, Chief of Research for Concentric Educational Solutions and Professor at Howard University. Dr. Tolson is a nationally recognized scholar in education equity, student engagement, and data interpretation. He previously served as executive director of the White House Initiative on historically black colleges and universities. His recent work draws on insights from more than 17,000 home visits, offering one of the most comprehensive looks at the real barriers students face when it comes to attending school.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 2:56

Thank you. It's great to be here with you.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 2:57

When people hear chronic absenteeism, they often think of disengaged students. Now, based on your research,

The Big Misconception About Absences

Dr. Lisa Hassler 3:05

what's the biggest misconception that we have about why students miss school?

Dr. Ivory Toldson 3:10

Yeah, that's an excellent question. And I I think the the whole terminology, chronic absenteeism, it has a certain type of hollow feel to it. It is something that comes off as a label, something that will make people feel like these are students that just don't want to come to school, disengaged, as you as she said. But what we found in looking at 17,000 home visits data where someone came to the home to see why the student wasn't coming to school. A lot of them ended up talking to students and their families. And they found there's a lot of different factors that go into that decision not to go. Some of it is beyond their control. Some of it is a systemic issue. Most of the majority of the students are not going to school because they simply don't want to go. The biggest misconception is that there is not a lot of cases where students actually cannot go to school, where there is a physical barrier, a circumstance that is preventing them from going to school.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 4:14

Yes. And your work suggests that absenteeism is much less about that student motivation. You're talking about that engagement, and much more about those systemic barriers. So can you unpack what that looks like for families?

Dr. Ivory Toldson 4:28

Yeah. So one of the things I talk about in the report is the privilege gap. So before I talk about what it looks like for them, I want us to all think about what it looks like for us. So if you have a child and the child needs to get to school and you go to start your car, and for whatever reason, your car won't start. Whether you do, a lot of us have a second car that we can rely on. If that car, if that car isn't around, say your your spouse, your significant other took that car. Some of us have public transportation, but a lot of us don't. But a lot of us also have ride share. Some of us have other resources around the family, neighbors, people that we can call on. So a lot of us have multiple ways to get to school, uh, to get their child to school. Think about a situation where there's only one way to get to school. And whether that one way is the most unreliable way that you could think of, which in our research, it looks like public transportation. So public transportation is the only way that they can get there. They don't have a car, they don't have money for ride share. Public transportation is the only way. And if they miss one bus, if a bus comes early off schedule, they may have to wait until another hour for that next bus, depending on where they are. And then they come to school late, and then they're told that if they come late four times, then you are suspended. So you have schools that actually try to treat truancy with suspensions, which seems counterintuitive, right?

Dr. Lisa Hassler 6:05

Very much so, yes.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 6:06

So so that that privilege gap, and and that's one example, but I could say the same thing with health. For some families, a flu is one day missed school. For another family, it's several days because of some compounding issues. It may be that they can't get to the doctor that day and have to wait until the next day. It could be that somebody has to stay home and miss the day of work. And so it's it's all these compounding issues that could

The Privilege Gap In Getting To School

Dr. Ivory Toldson 6:35

lead to students not coming to school. And a lot of times we just have this blind spot because the things keep them away from school are things that we take for granted.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 6:44

I think a lot of times systems are trying so hard to have students come on time. They're, you know, throwing pep rallies. What kind of incentives can we do? It's not all about wanting, it's those invisible barriers that you don't see because you're not looking at it through the lens of that family and that child and what's going on for them. But you knocked on 17,000 doors and you analyze the data from those home visits. What patterns stood out that schools are being blinded to that they just may not see from their position?

Dr. Ivory Toldson 7:18

Yeah. So when looking at the notes of the professional student advocates that went to the homes, doing a thematic analysis and seeing what kind of things emerge, what are the categories? The number one issue that came up was health. And this could be the health of the student, it could also be the health of a family member, someone much older, someone much younger. It could be physical health, uh, it could be mental health. And with health, some of the things that students are being labeled absent for could be excused, but there are communication barriers. Now, there are some families that will have a child that's sick and they don't do the thing that they're supposed to do in terms of call the school, get the doctor's book, and all those types of things. Other times the families have called the school, but whoever they talked to didn't pass on the message. And so you have those types of things that that happen. Then you have these gray areas. And so a gray area might be so if your mother is sick and she needs your help to take care of an infant and you're a teenager, is that an excuse absence?

Dr. Lisa Hassler 8:28

It becomes questionable because on one hand, no, because you need to be in school, but on the other hand, your family needs you.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 8:39

Right. Yeah, yeah. So you have, you know, you have those types of things. Now, if a mother had a stroke and you went with her to the hospital, then I don't think there would be any gray area with that. Right. Even though I I don't know if the schools really have anything written. Um, but I think if they hear that, their compassion will say, okay, this should be an excuse absence. But the the other scenario just seems more like a pattern. You know, if if you have a situation where you have an elder in the house and the mother is taking care of the elder, and the mother usually works in the evening while you're at school, but then they get called in at the last minute and they're asking you to take care of this elder. So you have these types of things. Now, again, going back to the privilege gap, you know, I have children and I know the resources I have to mitigate these types of situations. I would ask my children to take on these responsibilities. But every scenario I can think of that is helping my children not have to do these things has to do with money. Is it is something that I can pay for so that my children don't have to do this. So if you took the money away from me, I'm not sure how I would be able to manage a lot of these situations. So health is is one of them. Transportation is another thing. I already gave that as an example. But it's it's interesting. I I live in Washington, D.C. I live about three and a half miles away from Howard University, which is where I'm I'm on faculty. And they they just improved the bus route in DC, at least that's what they said. So they completely revamped it. And I looked at the new route and I found that there was a bus stop that was walking distance from my house that would take me directly to within a half mile from Howard University without having to make any changes. So I said, great, let me, you know, let me try this because you know it costs $20 a day to park at Howard University. So I was thinking, okay, well, let me let me try this. The bus did not come. And I'm I'm looking at when it's supposed to come, and that time expired, the bus didn't come, and then it just flipped to another hour.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 10:51

Wow.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 10:52

I ended up walking back home, getting the car, paying the $20 for parking.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 10:56

I mean, what are the odds? I that's terrible. And then this is the system that people are relying on to get them back and forth every day.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 11:04

Yes. DC has no, they don't have a school bus system. They give all of the students passes to use uh public transportation. They only have a bus system for special needs children. So if you don't have a documented uh special need, then you have to rely on the same transportation that I tried to rely on for that day. And I haven't tried since.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 11:27

No, it because how reliable or trustworthy do you feel like that is? I wouldn't.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 11:32

And how often do these children say, I missed a bus or the bus didn't come, and we're like rolling our eyes at them?

Dr. Lisa Hassler 11:40

That is so true. That's like that's up there with my the doggy, my homework.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 11:43

Yeah, how how yeah, how convenient.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 11:47

Well, so many schools are still relying on the compliance-driven strategies. So can you explain what compliance-driven strategies are and what the research says about those type of approaches?

Dr. Ivory Toldson 12:00

Yeah, so compliance-driven tries to figure out how to

Health Barriers And Excuse Gray Zones

Dr. Ivory Toldson 12:05

get students to school by enforcing a penalty for not coming to school. And in some cases, a reward if they do come to school. So we we have that also. So, and you know, the typical thing is a perfect attendance award, but you have to be perfect for that. So you miss one and you're not gonna get that award. But you know, I've I've seen schools do other things to try to encourage students to come. You know, if if they go 10 days without an absence, they may get a reward. But far more common is the truancy officer. You miss a certain number of days, so you either have to repeat the grade or given the citation. There's also the penalty of suspensions, as I told you about. You you miss too many days and then they suspend you, which again is very counterintuitive.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 12:53

So much so.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 12:54

But very common. I remember one person who was conducting the professional development, and he told this story that he's in the office of a of the principal that he's coming to do the professional development for. And there's a student that comes late, and the principal said, You come in here late again? And the student said, Yeah, and you know, gave an excuse, and the principal said, Well, you know, we have to suspend you. You know that you can't do this every day. So, you know, you can't you can't come today because this is your fifth tardy. I sent the student home and then looked at the one doing the professional development and said, See what I have to deal with? Yay. These are compliance-driven strategies. It focuses on the behavior without addressing the root cause. So the question is, is there an alternative? And there is an alternative. There's alternatives. They're just not as straightforward as compliance. Communication is very important. Having an open channel communication and knowing what issues are and being able to mitigate certain things, but have a basic level of understanding for other things. The days that, and this this might be another common misconception. The days, the the number of days that students miss, it impacts their learning. But there are a lot of high-achieving students who might miss the same number of days with no penalty, and they're missing those days because of things that the school values. So there are athletes that miss a lot of days of school. There are people who are participating in plays that miss school, there are people who are competing in different things. And when you total up their days, they actually miss the same number of days or more that would get certain students kicked out of school or that would be labeled chronically absent.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 14:47

That's mind-blowing. It really is.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 14:49

Right. And I know this is, and you know, I've done a lot of research, but I feel like I learned just as much or more through being a parent. You know, I have a I have a daughter that's in college right now, a son that's in middle school. But I remember when my daughter was in this play in middle school, and that middle school, they they they took their drama club so seriously. Like they, you know, they they had these high accolades and all this kind of stuff.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 15:13

Yeah.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 15:14

And so they practice a lot. And leading up to the day of the play, the drama teacher was taking the students out of school for entire days. And I was really concerned about it. You know, like why is she missing so much school? But it was something that the, you know, that the school valued, and and on her report card, there were all of those excused days that she missed, and it would have put her in the category of chronically absent, the days that she missed for drama and for other class activities. And then at the end of the year, she got a perfect attendance award.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 15:52

You're like, something about this feels off.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 15:55

Right. So so these are things that we value. And you know, we're trying to say that they have to be in school, but there are circumstances where they're not in school and they're still getting the education. But some of these kids who are making decisions outside of the school, like a high

When Public Transit Fails Students

Dr. Ivory Toldson 16:15

school kid who can work on the work site every now and then and get some money. So they miss school sometimes. So they they try to do it, you know, maybe every other week to miss school, work on this site, make some money. So they're doing something that they might value, that is giving them some life skills, is bringing some money into their house. But because the school hasn't endorsed it, that's seen differently. And so we have students who are missing school for reasons that the school doesn't endorse and they are penalized for it. And so going back to compliance versus non-compliant, if we worked with students, so the one that's that's on the construction site, especially if it's a senior, has taken most of the classes that they need to graduate, it's taken a lot of the lectives. Why if if if we really wanted to work with them and say, well, who's supervising you on this work site? Maybe we can talk to them and see if there's an education component that we could associate with this.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 17:15

Ah, yes.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 17:16

Or, you know, if you only need English to graduate, but that and and these these electives, maybe we could make sure that you come for your English class and excuse some of these other things.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 17:30

Right.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 17:30

And have some remote learning or some other ways, some correspondence for you to get the things that that that you missed. So, you know, these types of things. And then going back to those other things like transportation, the health, and things like that, in a situation of a student who uh where the where the bus doesn't come and they have to go back home. If the school had as a policy, if public transportation has failed you, you know, if you could, you know, show some documented proof, you know, maybe a screenshot on the app or a picture with a timestamp or you know, something that helps us to know that this actually happens, then this is an excused absence. And this is how we deal with excused absences. I I think that, you know, going back to uh my daughter's situation, when the school endorses you being the absent, they treat you different, not only in the way they count the absence, but the way that they instruct you on how to get the material and what they tell the teachers. You know, so they tell the teachers this student is missing school because they're in the drama club. So make sure that you send them their work. We don't do that for a transportation failure because of certain assumptions that we make about it. So these are non-punitive approaches, having a clear communication, trying to create an environment of full understanding and

Why Compliance Strategies Backfire

Dr. Ivory Toldson 18:50

transparency, instructing students on the excuse absence process and making sure that they understand that we support their journey through education, even if they have to miss school. The mastery of the material is the most important thing. There will be some times where you may have to master this material while while not being there. And we're here to help you through that, not to not to punish you for not being here.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 19:14

Are those some of those human-centered approaches that you're thinking of? Okay, all right, good. Is there anything else you want to add for human-centered approaches?

Dr. Ivory Toldson 19:22

Yeah, so yeah, so all of these are human-centered approaches. And I work for concentric educational solutions, and the research was based on going to these homes and knocking on these doors. And so I think that is one of the ultimate human-centered approaches to actually visit the home and to understand the situation and not coming to the home with a citation, but coming to the home with resources. So I don't want to punish you. So that's that's working with them as humans, understanding that they're not just doing it out of defiance, uh, they're doing it because something is happening. And even if it's it's outward, it looks it looks defiant from the the outside. Something happened that led them to that place. There are students who stop going to school because they believe that a teacher has it out for them. And every time they go to the school, this teacher treats them so poorly that you know they they want to avoid it. So so that that could look like defiance because they're they're avoiding the teacher. But if you don't deal with that root cause, if you don't try to figure out what's happening between the student and the teacher, and you know, let's talk to the teacher, let's talk to a student, but let's see where this relationship has broken down to the point where this student is trying to avoid the teacher. Well, so that's humans to not just look at it as a compliance issue, but look at it as a relationship issue.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 20:43

It's almost you have to deal with it on a case-by-case basis, and that starts with open dialogue in a place where they can trust you with that information. I don't think a lot of people are going to walk in the door and start discussing private matters to the school secretary while there's other families that are coming and going. And then on top of it, being able to know that what you say is going to fall on empathetic ears and not as a dismissal, an eye roll, they're just late again, like you were saying about that principal who spoke with that student, which I'm just shocked at, but I'm not, you know, like I am, but I'm not. I mean, if you think he's avoiding school, isn't that kind of giving me exactly what he wanted? Tardies leading to suspension. How often do you see that schools really make changes to those policies? Something that's just so fundamental like that.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 21:31

Yeah, I don't see it very often. And I think in terms of what schools should do, I think that's the first thing they have to do is look at their policies and you know, trying to see what's causing most of the suspensions, because a lot of times suspensions lead to absenteeism. And, you know, there are schools where I I remember there was a principal that told me that the number one reason why students were getting suspended was because of SARDE's. And he said that he just really didn't understand it because they he would They were coming late and we would suspend them and then they would still come up school late and he'd suspend them again. And he's telling me this. And then he uh and he tells me this on my way out of the door, and he said, he said, so you know, what can I do about this? I know you don't have that much time, but you know, what can I do about this? And I said, Have you asked the students why they're coming to school late? And he said, Huh, I didn't think about that. You know, finding out why is fundamental. There's also dress code violations that will have students, you know, not coming to school. And so if a dress code is the barrier, especially if you're, you know, you're you're strict uniform and you know you have to wear khakis and nothing else, have you really thought about, you know, whether it's a financial strain or if it's you know issue of expressiveness, or you know, what what's driving this? If so many students are violating it, then at some point you have to look at the rule and not just try to drill this rule. There's this one school where it just seemed like there was a chewing gum epidemic.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 23:04

Do kids chew

Building Human-Centered Attendance Policies

Dr. Lisa Hassler 23:05

that much gum anymore? Like I don't see it all over the underneath the desks and the roads like I used to.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 23:10

Well, I guess that's because they're suspending them.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 23:16

They're gonna they're gonna stop that nasty habit.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 23:19

Yeah, yeah. So so so so just just trying to figure out, you know, why with a lot of these things are is the first thing that you have to do. Uh, and to to really have clear policies about what's excused and what's not excused, and also a clear structure on how to welcome students back if they have been out for a period of time. What's the responsibility of the teacher to give the students information that they might have missed? Because a lot of sometimes it just ends up in this cycle of, you know, I get in trouble and suspend it, and then I come back and I don't feel welcome, and I feel so behind. And so now, you know, not gonna come back. Um so all of these are things that we have to look at. Another thing, the relationship between students and schools have changed a lot since the pandemic. And I I think it's very predictable because our relationship with work has changed a lot. Like I don't know any professional that goes to work every single day anymore since the pandemic. And before the pandemic, I knew people who went into the office all the time. But then when they learned the number of things they could do remotely, they they stopped going, and there was this tension for a while between employers and employees, and now it seems like they've hit this this happy median. And there's certain circumstances where people just feel like they they they shouldn't have to come into the office anymore, like weather. There was a time when you would fight through that weather to get through the office, but now if it's even a slight hazard, we tend to stay home and work from home. And a lot of students are trying to force that issue on schools now. You can you can see it, and not just the students, but their families too. Uh, there are there are families that don't have to drive to their work site when the weather is a certain way, as long as they can do that at home. And they feel like the child shouldn't have to get on the bus or they shouldn't have to drive the child either. It's a a norm that we've picked up since the pandemic. And I think schools really need to think honestly about how we can compromise certain things. I saw an article not too long ago about how some families are not taking the perfect attendance as seriously. And a lot of it is because they found that they could expose their children to some enriching things outside of school during the pandemic. And so their child was still participating in remote learning, but they were able to go on a trip with their families, uh and they're able to experience these things. And so now families are looking at that, you know, the experiences that their child could have outside of school. And so, in terms of what schools can do, I want to close with this constantly find the reasons why. Look for the root cause. Don't try to tackle behaviors without knowing what's behind the behavior that you're tackling. Trying to figure out, well, what can we do better as a school? So when we have this kind of relationship with the students, then we can see a lot more students coming through the door.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 26:26

Yeah. School leaders could do that today, they could do that tomorrow. And then if we reframe absenteeism as a systems issue with specific barriers, what kind of things can schools or policy, even funding models would need to change to address absenteeism as more of a systems issue?

Dr. Ivory Toldson 26:44

Yeah, yeah. So I think it starts with the mindset. So think about the difference between fighting absenteeism and increasing participation. So if I say I'm fighting absenteeism, a lot of times we think about targeting that behavior and trying to figure out how do we push and pull a certain type of student who is resisting school, who has a certain relationship with the school that is leading towards this absence. So if we're fighting absenteeism, we tend to approach it one way. If we are increasing participation, then we

Increase Participation Instead Of Punishing Absence

Dr. Ivory Toldson 27:20

look at these universal things that will make any student more likely to not just come to school, but to want to come to school. So I'm going to increase participation by having more clubs and more organizations and surveying the students and figuring out whether some of the things that they want to see in the school to make things better. There was a senior in high school on a panel in Philadelphia. She talked about how school was becoming this burden to her and that she didn't really like school, but she was going through the motions. She talked about things like the feeling of the school, that there's nothing on the wall, that it's these concrete bare walls, and it reminds her of a prison. And so, you know, putting art on the wall is simple enough. And, you know, there there's study after study that show that happy learners are the best learners. And so if you ask yourself the question, what would make students more happy when they come to school? You know, this can be disconnected from the conversation on absenteeism. And so when we shift the framing from fighting absenteeism to increasing participation, you treat it with more compassion, more communication, more how can we make the environment work for you? How can we make the system serve you rather than be a burden to you?

Dr. Lisa Hassler 28:44

Yes, absolutely. I was reflecting on how you went door-to-door, community outreach, community mentorships, how many schools pair a student that is displaying chronic absenteeism, and then also the idea of blended learning, being able to access your education from home on those days that gives more flexibility and a little bit more understanding to say, okay, well, you had to stay home, but you can still do the work. So that comes down to rethinking how we are structuring our absenteeism policies so that we're removing those barriers. That's not really getting us ahead. All right. Well, thank you so much for this conversation. A lot of it comes back to your white paper. And what is that called for the audience if they want to look it up?

Dr. Ivory Toldson 29:28

Yeah, it's redefining the attendance paradigm, systemic analysis of chronic absenteeism, economic impacts, and human-centered intervention. I want people to understand after the research that I've done, I feel like it's easier, not more complex, to help to increase the number of students who are coming to school. I think there are things that's well within our ability to do. All it takes is the will, but we have the ability.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 29:54

Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for your time.

Dr. Ivory Toldson 29:57

Yeah, thank you.

Dr. Lisa Hassler 29:57

As you reflect on today's conversation, consider this. Instead of asking how do we get students to show up, try asking what might be getting in their way. That shift from focusing on behavior to understanding barriers can change how we respond, how we support, and ultimately who we're

Closing Reflection And Ways To Connect

Dr. Lisa Hassler 30:15

able to reach. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at Lisa at drisaarhassler.com or visit my website at www.drlisaarhassler.com and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.