States / Kansas

Chronic absence in Kansas

Where things stand, what state rules ask of each role, and what is changing. For school and district leaders.

School year 2025-26

17.87%

of students were chronically absent¹

Chronically absent means missed 10% or more of school days.⁶

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)⁷

Five-year trend

Kansas, year by year

Kansas chronic absence by school year
School year	Chronically absent
2021-22	25.41%
2022-23	21.82%
2023-24	19.77%
2024-25	19.56%
2025-26	17.87%

Dashed bars mark years the state did not publish a rate.

Where things stand

The numbers

In 2025-26, 17.87% of Kansas students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10% or more of school days, according to the state report card^1,6.
The state rate has fallen each year since 2021-22, when it was 25.41%. It was 21.82% in 2022-23, 19.77% in 2023-24 and 19.56% in 2024-25^5,4,3,2.
The state counts students in kindergarten through grade 12. A student who is chronically absent in more than one building counts only once at the district and state level⁶.
Nationally, 22.6% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25. Kansas was below that, at 19.56% the same year^7,2.

Requirements by role

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

If a district sets up a school attendance review board, the board must include one or more people representing the district's teachers¹¹.

Counselors

One way a 16- or 17-year-old can be exempt from compulsory attendance is if a parent gives written consent and the child and parent attend a final counseling session conducted by the school, where a disclaimer encouraging the child to remain in school or pursue educational alternatives is presented to and signed by the child and parent⁸.
The disclaimer must include the academic skills the child has not yet achieved, the difference in future earning power between a high school graduate and a dropout, and a list of educational alternatives available to the child⁸.
If a district sets up a school attendance review board, the board must include one or more people representing school guidance personnel¹¹.
A pupil who is required by law to attend school and is irregular in attendance may be referred to the school attendance review board. Each board of education must designate one or more employees to make referrals. The referring employee must notify the pupil and parents in writing of the review board's name and address and the reason, and that they will be required, along with the referring person, to meet with the review board¹².
If community services can resolve the pupil's problem, the review board must direct the pupil or parents, or both, to use them. If they cannot, or the family fails to respond to the review board's directives or services, the review board may notify the secretary for children and families or the county or district attorney. If the case is referred to district court, the review board must submit documentation of efforts to secure attendance and its recommendations¹².

Attendance team

A child who is required to attend school and is enrolled counts as not attending school as required by law after being inexcusably absent on three consecutive school days, five school days in any semester or seven school days in any school year, whichever comes first⁹.
A child is inexcusably absent if absent all or a significant part of a school day without a valid excuse acceptable to the school employee the board has designated as responsible for that child's attendance. Each board must designate one or more such employees, so that every enrolled child has a designee who decides whether excuses are acceptable and valid⁹.
Before reporting a child as not attending school as required by law, the designated employee must serve written notice on a parent or person acting as parent, by personal delivery or first class mail. The notice must say that continued failure to attend without a valid excuse will result in a report to the secretary for children and families or to the county or district attorney⁹.
The designated employee must then make the report upon failure, on the school day after personal delivery or within three school days after the notice was mailed, "of attendance at school by the child or of an acceptable response" from a parent, as the designated employee determines. A certificate showing how notice was given goes with the report⁹.
When a law enforcement officer takes temporary custody of a child found away from home or school without a valid excuse during the hours school is actually in session, and delivers the child to the child's school or to a location the school designates to address truancy, the designated employee must notify a parent. The notice may be oral or written and must say the child was absent without a valid excuse and was delivered to school by a law enforcement officer⁹.

Principals & districts

Each board of education must designate one or more employees to report children not attending school as required by law. Cases of children under 13 go to the secretary for children and families or a designee, or to the county or district attorney where the local children and families office has an agreement with that attorney; cases of children 13 or older but under 18 go to the county or district attorney or a designee⁹.
The board must make this designation no later than September 1 of each school year and certify it no later than 10 days later to the secretary for children and families, the county or district attorney and the commissioner of education⁹.
A designated employee reports an enrolled child as not attending school as required by law only if the report would not violate the memorandum of understanding approved by the superintendent under K.S.A. 72-6143(i). That memorandum, developed with stakeholders including law enforcement, the courts and district and county attorneys, sets guidelines for how and when school-based behaviors are referred to law enforcement or the juvenile justice system, with the goal of reducing such referrals and protecting public safety^9,10.
Each board must adopt rules defining a valid excuse for absence and what counts as a "significant part of a school day". A child who must attend school but is not enrolled in a public or nonpublic school must be reported by a designated employee of the district where the child lives, after the parent notice step. In this law, "board of education" also means the governing authority of a nonpublic school⁹.
A district board may set up a school attendance review board, alone or through an agreement with other boards. Where a district has set one up, its superintendent must convene it at the beginning of each school year to adopt plans that promote interagency and community cooperation and reduce duplication of services for youth with serious school attendance problems; for a joint board, the superintendent of the district with the most pupils convenes it¹¹.

Accountability

How the state holds schools to it

Kansas reports chronic absenteeism on its state report card, with rates for the state, each district and building, and student subgroups⁶.
On the report card, chronic absenteeism is listed under performance indicators. The ESSA accountability indicators listed are academic achievement, gap comparison, graduation, English language proficiency and reducing Level 1 scores¹³.
The state education agency's accountability report posts chronic absenteeism with graduation rate, dropout rate and ACT results, and compares each district or building with the state¹⁴.
State school-improvement guidance names chronic absenteeism as one example of data, beyond assessments, that schools might review for their improvement plans¹⁴.

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Sources

Kansas State Department of Education (Kansas Report Card). Kansas Report Card data service, Chronic Absenteeism, State Aggregate, all students: % chronically absent by program year (program year 2026 = the 2025-26 school year; spring-year label) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas State Department of Education (Kansas Report Card). Kansas Report Card data service, Chronic Absenteeism, State Aggregate, all students: % chronically absent by program year (program year 2025 = the 2024-25 school year; spring-year label) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas State Department of Education (Kansas Report Card). Kansas Report Card data service, Chronic Absenteeism, State Aggregate, all students: % chronically absent by program year (program year 2024 = the 2023-24 school year; spring-year label) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas State Department of Education (Kansas Report Card). Kansas Report Card data service, Chronic Absenteeism, State Aggregate, all students: % chronically absent by program year (program year 2023 = the 2022-23 school year; spring-year label) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas State Department of Education (Kansas Report Card). Kansas Report Card data service, Chronic Absenteeism, State Aggregate, all students: % chronically absent by program year (program year 2022 = the 2021-22 school year; spring-year label) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas State Department of Education (Kansas Report Card). Kansas Report Card 2025-2026: Chronic Absenteeism, Explanation of Chronic Absenteeism Data (definition) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
American Enterprise Institute (Nat Malkus). From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025 (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes (Kansas State Legislature, 2026 Kansas Statutes). K.S.A. 72-3120, Compulsory school attendance; exemptions (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes (Kansas State Legislature, 2026 Kansas Statutes). K.S.A. 72-3121, Same; noncompliance; duties of boards of education, secretary for children and families, county and district attorneys; notification of absence to parents (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes (Kansas State Legislature, 2026 Kansas Statutes). K.S.A. 72-6143, Kansas school safety and security act (subsection (i), memorandum of understanding) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes (Kansas State Legislature, 2026 Kansas Statutes). K.S.A. 72-3131, School attendance review board; members, meetings; rules and regulations (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes (Kansas State Legislature, 2026 Kansas Statutes). K.S.A. 72-3135, Referral of students; notice; resolving the problem (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas State Department of Education (Kansas Report Card). Kansas Report Card 2025-2026: report card menu (Performance Indicators) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)
Kansas State Department of Education. School Improvement Day Data Review Guide (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13)