The latest research on social and emotional learning (SEL) curated by CASEL for those working to directly impact student experiences and outcomes.
VOLUME 1 · ISSUE 1
FALL 2026
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Attendance Special Issue
From the Editors
Back to topWelcome Back to School—and Back to the Research
Dear Colleagues,
Another school year is underway, and with it comes a familiar question from the educators with whom we work: Which SEL research matters right now? Each quarter, CASEL’s research team reviews the latest studies in the field to bring you the findings most likely to change what happens in classrooms and buildings to enhance the social and emotional competencies and well-being of students.
In this special issue, we focus on a topic that is top of mind for us and many districts and states across the country: attendance.
This issue leads with new national tracking data showing that attendance recovery has nearly stalled, plus evidence that today’s elevated absenteeism looks less like a lingering wound in pandemic-era cohorts and more like a broader shift in attendance norms across every grade. We pair that with studies connecting school climate—safety, connectedness, adult relationships—to attendance outcomes, along with practical evidence about which climate levers move first.
In every issue, we will translate the research into concrete next steps, plus ready-to-share language for the parents, staff, and community members who ask, “Is this actually working?”
In Community,
Dr. Rista Plate & Dr. Rafiqah Mustafaa
The CASEL DATA-DRIVEN Team
This Issue’s Key Research
Back to topNATIONAL TRENDS
Chronic Absenteeism Improvement Is Stalling Nationwide
Malkus, N. (2026). From attendance crisis to chronic condition? Tracking post-pandemic chronic absenteeism into 2025. American Enterprise Institute.
Summary. Across 45 states with 2025 data on chronic absenteeism, chronic absenteeism peaked at 28.3 percent in 2022 and has fallen every year since, but the pace of improvement is collapsing: a 2.6-point drop in 2023, a 2.2-point drop in 2024, and less than a 1-point drop in 2025. In districts that challenged themselves to cut their chronic absenteeism rate in half by 2027, only 29 percent are on track to do so. While the spike in chronic absenteeism may be attributable to the pandemic, the slowing rate of decrease may not be. Kindergartners in 2025—many of whom were not yet born during pandemic closures—had chronic absenteeism rates 48 percent above 2019 levels. The pandemic alone cannot explain persistent chronic absenteeism rates. Additionally, these findings suggest a concerning reality: Attendance patterns aren’t likely to resolve on their own as time passes post-pandemic. Instead, we are likely to see stagnant improvements, reflecting broad shifts in attendance culture, unless schools and districts move to shift attitudes and practices.
| Don’t frame attendance campaigns as “catching up” pandemic-era students; the data suggest every current grade band, including students with no pandemic schooling experience, needs attention. Messaging and interventions should target schoolwide norms with developmentally appropriate messaging that continues promoting a culture of attendance through high school. |
NATIONAL TRENDS
Absences and Achievement After the Pandemic: Evidence From Maryland and North Carolina
Blazar, D., Gershenson, S., & Hutt, E. (2025). Absences and achievement after the pandemic: Evidence from Maryland and North Carolina. American Enterprise Institute.
Summary. Using statewide administrative data linking test scores, absences, and classroom assignments for millions of students in Maryland and North Carolina, this study asked: After years of pandemic-driven investment in virtual learning tools and asynchronous instruction, are absences still as harmful to achievement as they used to be? The answer is yes, just slightly less so. Comparing the 2018–19 school year to 2022–23, the researchers found that 10 additional absences reduced math scores by about 5–7 percent of a test-score standard deviation before the pandemic, dropping only modestly to about 4–6 percent after it—a reduction of roughly 10–20 percent, driven likely by schools’ improved capacity to deliver work to students who miss class. But because absenteeism itself rose so much more than that modest per-absence improvement, the total harm from missed school has actually increased on average. The authors compared it to a store cutting prices 10 percent while shoppers buy 50 percent more: Total spending still goes up. The relationship between absences and achievement was also confirmed to be linear—a student’s 20th absence is roughly as harmful as their 1st—meaning there is no safe threshold below chronic-absence status.
| The impact of absenteeism has lowered slightly; however, the rise in total absences overrides it. That means that the stakes for students are higher than ever, not lower. And every single absence still counts. Virtual catch-up tools (recorded lessons, online assignment portals) may have some benefit, but it’s not enough. We need approaches that bring students back to school and help them stay connected. |
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES
Social and Emotional Growth Associated With Lower Chronic Absenteeism
Johnson, E. S., Taylor, E., & Robitaille, J. (2026). Social-emotional growth as a protective factor against chronic absenteeism. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 7, 100188.
Summary. In this correlational study, researchers looked at DESSA-Mini assessment and attendance data for 1,863 middle school students who were matched on baseline social and emotional competencies. From this group, those who showed high growth in social and emotional competencies across the school year were less likely to be chronically absent than those (matched) peers who showed no growth in their social and emotional competencies across the school year. This gap was even larger for students who started the year with low social and emotional competencies. Overall, growth in social and emotional competencies was associated with over 47 percent lower odds of chronic absenteeism.
| If your district already administers a social and emotional competency assessment, take a look at student growth in addition to reviewing end-of-year scores. Social and emotional growth and attendance should be tracked together, with SEL programs and supports considered part of your attendance toolkit rather than a separate initiative. |
SCHOOL CLIMATE
Creating Welcoming Schools: Positive Climate Predicts Lower Absenteeism
Graham, J., Chiang, Y.-C., & Choi, S. Y. (2026). Creating welcoming schools: The role of positive climates in reducing absenteeism. American Educational Research Journal, 63(2), 421–465.
Summary. Using statewide data from Georgia middle and high school students, this study found that aggregated student-reported school climate significantly predicted school-level absenteeism rates, with the relationship strongest for Black and White students. On average, in a school with 1,000 students, improving school climate by one standard deviation could lead to 18 fewer chronic absent students per year. Additionally, the authors looked at what aspects of climate were most strongly associated with absenteeism: Connectedness, safety, and structure for learning were the strongest predictors of chronic absenteeism.
| If you can only act on one lever this year, prioritize student sense of connectedness, school safety, and the structure of learning—and treat declining climate perceptions as an early-warning signal for attendance, particularly for Black and White students. |
DISTRICT DATA · CHICAGO
Connection, Trust, and Learning: Attendance Still Matters—and Climate Matters More
Allensworth, E. M., Antony, M., Delgado, W., & de la Torre, M. (2026). Connection, trust, and learning: Student attendance in the middle and high school grades following the COVID-19 pandemic. UChicago Consortium on School Research.
Summary. In Chicago Public Schools, chronic absenteeism in the middle grades jumped from about 10 percent pre-pandemic to 33 percent in 2022; in high school, rates rose from 27–37 percent to 49–57 percent. Similar to Malkus’ (2026) findings (above), absenteeism rates remained elevated in later school years. Importantly, chronic absenteeism was associated with lower GPA and test scores, and the authors found that those associations were even larger post-pandemic. However, absence rates were not consistent across all schools. Even in schools serving similar students from similar neighborhoods, rates of student absences varied widely. What accounted for the difference? School climate and relationship factors. Schools in which students felt safe and connected had lower absence rates. These relationships were even more striking after the pandemic than before.
| Use this as evidence against the “nothing schools do matters, it’s all household circumstances” narrative: Schools serving comparable students see meaningfully different attendance outcomes. School climate combats absenteeism—and every member of the school community plays an important role in influencing students’ senses of safety and connectedness. |
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
School Climate Can Change—But Some Levers Move More Than Others
Young, C., & Hart, H. (2026). The Malleability of School Climate: Lessons from the 5Essentials Survey in Chicago Public Schools. UChicago Consortium on School Research.
Summary. The 5Essentials are defined as categories of organizational supports that are essential for improving student learning and include: Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Supportive Environment, Involved Families, and Ambitious Instruction. Tracking eight years of 5Essentials survey data, this study found school climate was genuinely malleable: Schools varied widely in how much they improved, even in slow-growth years districtwide. The “Ambitious Instruction” component grew the most. Moreover, there was no consistent link between school size, poverty, or student mobility and how much a school improved; the strongest predictor was simply how much room a school had to grow, suggesting that all schools have the potential to pull on these levels. Supportive Environment, characterized by measures assessing peer support for academic work, academic personalism, safety, student-teacher trust, schoolwide future orientation, and expectations for post-secondary education, was the only other essential that influenced growth in all the others. The authors suggest that—for districts that may be trying to decide on priority areas—Supportive Environment is the lever that has the most promise to affect all others. Similarly, Effective Leaders acted like a “universal donor”: Strong leadership predicted growth in every other essential.
| When educators are creating their school improvement plan and do not know where to begin, start with leadership and a supportive environment—not because other areas don’t matter, but because growth there tends to lift everything else. Don’t wait for one essential to be “fixed” before working on another; the data don’t support a required sequence. |
SEL Journal Highlights
Back to top
John-Tyler Binfe and Mikaela L. Dahlman (2026). Loneliness undermines college students’ opportunities to hone their social and emotional competencies. Loneliness can impede students’ development of social and emotional competencies. But social and emotional learning interventions can reduce loneliness, strengthen connections, and help students build the skills they need to succeed in postsecondary and work settings.
Meyer, J. L., Zieher, A. K., Bailey, C. S., Strambler, M. J., Ha, C., Torv, L., … & Cipriano, C. (2026). Development of the Compass Checklist for Elementary Schools: A tool to help teachers support students’ social and emotional development. We know that SEL must be implemented well in order to produce desired impacts for students. The Compass Checklist is a new tool, co-created with educators, to assess SEL implementation.
Mella, N., Rey, G., Zaharia, A., Smith, M. M., Samson, A. C., Gentaz, E., … & Sander, D. (2026). Common and differential effects of improvisation theater, mindfulness training and board games at school on adolescents’ social and emotional competencies. This paper looked at the effects of three approaches to building adolescents’ social and emotional competencies: improvisation theater, social and emotional board games, and mindfulness training. They found that the effects varied by intervention type; for example, improvisation theater improved cognitive empathy and collaboration skills. Students’ sense of anxiety was an important factor in the analysis, and engagement in any of the activities buffered high-anxiety from a loss of self-efficacy and emotional and behavioral difficulties.
CASEL Spotlight
Back to topWhy Attendance Is an SEL Issue, Not Just an Operations Issue
Check out our new publications connecting SEL to attendance. Through understanding these connections, districts can leverage their SEL efforts to tackle attendance issues.
Connection That Keeps Students Coming Back: Improving Student Attendance Through Relationships, Community, and Engagement. Our comprehensive theoretical framework that centers SEL as a key among relationships, belonging, and engagement for unlocking stronger attendance.
The Attendance Paradox: Educator and Administrator Perspectives on Student Attendance. We surveyed 400 teachers and administrators nationwide and found that 82 percent say current school attendance strategies are effective—despite persistently high chronic absenteeism. 94 percent think that a student’s sense of belongingness is a significant factor in whether they attend school consistently.
SEL and Student Attendance: Research and Policy Recommendations. Our latest brief covers the research on attendance and how states can use that research to inform policy moves.
Read more about CASEL’s attendance initiatives.
Watch & Learn
Back to topA Conversation With Dr. Shelley Berman
CASEL Director of Research & Learning Dr. Rista Plate discusses attendance with Dr. Shelley Berman, CASEL’s former interim CEO and a former superintendent. Dr. Berman currently works with a cohort of over 30 Oregon districts on attendance and has studied what it takes to actually improve attendance—not just in theory, but in practice. His report From Compliance to Invitation: Lessons in Improving Attendance in Eleven Oregon School Districts captures the experiences and lessons from 11 districts that are working to move the needle on attendance.
Bring It Home: Share With Your Community
Back to topCopy-and-paste blurbs for your next newsletter, staff bulletin, or family update—no rewriting required!
| Did you know? National data show attendance recovery has nearly stalled since the pandemic, and it’s not just older students still catching up—kindergartners today are missing school at rates close to students who lived through school closures. Regular attendance remains one of the strongest predictors of grades and test scores. If mornings are hard, reach out—we’d rather problem-solve with you than send a letter. |
| Quick research note: A 2026 Georgia study found that students’ sense of connectedness and safety at school predicted attendance more strongly than most other climate factors—and that worsening climate hurt attendance more than improving climate helped it. If you haven’t checked in on a chronically absent student’s sense of belonging this month, this is a good week to do it. |
| New research from the American Enterprise Institute and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research confirms that chronic absenteeism remains well above pre-pandemic levels nationally, but also that schools serving similar students can post very different attendance rates—meaning school-level practice matters. Our current improvement plan reflects that evidence, with a focus on strong research-backed levers, school climate, and connectedness alongside traditional attendance outreach. |
Want to Learn More?
Back to topProfessional Learning From CASEL
CASEL has launched a new in-depth technical assistance program, Improving Attendance Through School Culture. For district leaders and central office employees, CASEL will offer guidance on examining the critical elements of school culture, help districts develop new strategies for relationship-building and welcoming students to school and provide implementation and evaluation support. Particularly when used in conjunction with tracking attendance data and effective messaging, this collaborative and comprehensive approach can help districts address the nuanced causes of absenteeism so that school becomes a place where students want to be.
Want something for your teachers? A new virtual course for teachers, Belonging & Engagement in the Classroom, equips educators with strategies to build a welcoming and inclusive classroom culture that fosters community and sparks curiosity so that learning can follow.
Want More Data Driven Insights?
Back to topThis first issue is free, but for just $50, you’ll can take advantage of our introductory annual subscription rate of $50 to receive access to four more issues!