States / Maryland

Chronic absence in Maryland

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

School year 2025-26

22.8%

of students were chronically absent¹

Chronically absent means missed 10 percent or more of the school year.¹

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)⁵

Five-year trend

Maryland, year by year

Maryland chronic absence by school year
School year	Chronically absent
2018-19	20%
2021-22	30.9%
2022-23	30%
2023-24	27%
2024-25	25%
2025-26	22.8%

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

Where things stand

The numbers

In 2025-26, 22.8% of Maryland students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10 percent or more of the school year, according to the state education department¹.
The state calls this a four-year decline and the lowest rate since the pandemic, down from 30.9% in 2021-22¹.
The state reported 25% for 2024-25, and it has set a three-year target to cut the rate from a 2022-23 baseline of 30% to 15%^2,3.
A state analysis of 2023-24 data found that a student's September absences predicted end-of-year chronic absence 80% of the time, and students who missed more than three days in the first month were more likely than not to end the year chronically absent⁸.
Among students with two September absences, those who were chronically absent the year before were almost four times as likely to be chronically absent again (65% vs. 17%)⁸.
On a national compilation of state-reported data, Maryland was at 25% in 2024-25, above the US rate of 22.6%^4,5.

Requirements by role

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

Schools must keep a record of each student's daily attendance, following State Board of Education regulations and the Maryland Student Records System Manual 2020¹².
Under state regulation, a "day of attendance" means the student attends an instructional program approved by the State, local school system or school for greater than half the school day¹³.
Each local attendance policy must set make-up work requirements that cover classroom teacher and student responsibility, time limits, and grading policy for make-up work¹³.

Counselors

If a student or parent tells the school an absence was due to a behavioral health need, the school must give the student or parent information about school or community behavioral health resources available to the student¹⁴.
Each local school system must have a procedure for an educational interview with every student who leaves school before graduation, or with the parent or guardian, or both. At a minimum, the interview should encourage the student to stay in their current school program or enroll in an alternative program, verify the reasons for leaving, and make sure the parent or guardian is informed¹⁷.
To the extent possible, a county board representative must give each person who no longer attends a public high school in the county without a diploma or certificate information on alternative education programs and GED program requirements and testing locations¹⁰.

Attendance team

An absence, including for part of a day, for any reason not listed as lawful is presumed unlawful and may constitute truancy. A student is a habitual truant if unlawfully absent for more than 20 percent of the school days in any marking period, semester or year; a local school system may set a stricter, but not looser, definition, for example more than 15 percent¹⁵.
When the principal or head teacher of a public school reports that a student has been habitually truant without lawful excuse, the school system's representative must investigate the cause, may offer counseling about social, health and educational services, and afterward may notify the Department of Juvenile Services. It must notify the appropriate local department, or the Department of Juvenile Services, when a court has given the notice the Courts Article authorizes. The county superintendent, a designee, or the supervisor of pupil personnel must report to the local education agency the number of students identified as habitually truant⁹.
Only in a county where the circuit administrative judge has set up a Truancy Reduction Pilot Program, and to the extent the State budget funds it, a charge against a parent may be filed in juvenile court and assigned to a truancy docket; the court may condition marking the charge stet on the parent's taking part in the program¹¹.
Each local attendance policy must include an attendance-monitoring procedure with intervention strategies for absenteeism at its beginning stages as well as chronic absenteeism, and a referral process to pupil services or other central office professionals for case management of chronic attendance cases¹³.
Each person with legal custody or care and control of a child aged 5 to under 16 must see that the child attends school or receives instruction as the compulsory attendance law requires. The law lists children to whom it does not apply; and under State Board regulations a 5-year-old may be exempted for 1 year if the parent or guardian files a written request with the local school system asking that attendance be delayed due to the child's level of maturity¹¹. A person who fails to see that the child attends school or receives instruction under the compulsory attendance law is guilty of a misdemeanor: up to $50 per day of unlawful absence or 3 days in jail, or both, for a first conviction, and up to $100 per day or 5 days, or both, after that. It is a defense that the person made reasonable and substantial efforts but could not get the child to attend; the court may also order community service or suspend the sentence on terms that promote attendance¹¹.

Principals & districts

The principal or head teacher of every public or private school must report immediately to the county superintendent, the supervisor of pupil personnel or another designated official the name of each enrolled child who has been absent or irregular in attendance without lawful excuse, or who shows evidence of maladjustment, so the causes can be studied and solutions worked out⁹.
A county superintendent, a principal, or someone either one authorizes may excuse a student for a lawful absence. Absences are lawful only for the conditions the regulation lists, such as a death in the immediate family, illness, court summons, hazardous weather, a religious holiday, suspension, lack of authorized transportation (but not for students denied authorized transportation for disciplinary reasons), or another emergency the superintendent or designee judges good and sufficient cause^11,14.
For a student reported continuously absent, the principal or a designee must require from the parent or guardian a physician's certificate for a physical illness, or a certificate from an appropriate licensed or certified health care provider for a behavioral health need¹⁴.
Each local school system must have a student attendance policy that includes procedures to verify absences and tardiness, with responsible persons, time limits and methods, and best practices against chronic absenteeism that are culturally responsive and nonpunitive. Those practices may include requiring each school to have a team that oversees school-wide attendance strategies and engaging families with positive, proactive, non-punitive strategies¹³.
Each local school system must review its student attendance data at least annually, post its current attendance policy on its website, and require each school to include the policy on the school's website and in its student handbook¹³.

Recent changes

What changed lately

Chapter 243 (House Bill 879) took effect July 1, 2025 and created a Task Force to Improve Attendance and Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools. Among other duties, the task force must set a statewide goal for reducing chronic absenteeism and report its findings and recommendations by December 31, 2025; the law ends at the end of December 31, 2026¹⁸.
The same law told the state education department to update its attendance regulations by December 31, 2025, with common definitions for chronic absence, chronic absenteeism and day of attendance, and to distribute the task force's toolkit for school leaders and guidance to each local school system by June 30, 2026¹⁸.
A new state attendance policy regulation took effect May 25, 2026. It defines chronic absence as missing 10 percent or more of school days for any lawful or unlawful reason, for a student enrolled in a school for at least 10 days, and it requires local attendance policies to include culturally responsive, nonpunitive best practices against chronic absenteeism^16,13.
In September 2025 the state began a monthly At Risk for Chronic Absence data collection, which counts students enrolled at least one day who have already missed 10% or more of school days, and it committed to posting monthly statewide and local summaries⁸.
In September 2026 the state launched its Maryland Shows Up attendance campaign and said it will launch a state-level recognition program for schools that lower chronic absenteeism¹.

Accountability

How the state holds schools to it

Chronic absenteeism counts in Maryland's school star ratings. Schools earn one to five stars based on the percentage of points earned across indicators, and School Quality and Student Success is an indicator at every school level⁷.
That indicator has 35 possible points across three measures; chronic absenteeism, scored as the percentage of students not chronically absent, is worth 15 possible points⁶.
On the Maryland Report Card, the chronic absenteeism rate is the share of students in kindergarten through grade twelve expected to attend at least 10 days who were absent 10% or more of school days; in a 180-day year that is 18 or more days⁶.
The state education department has set a three-year target to cut chronic absenteeism from 30% in 2022-23 to 15%, and its strategic plan includes an outcome of decreasing the rate of chronic absenteeism^3,8.
The state is evaluating its accountability system; an advisory committee has met monthly since June 2025 to develop proposed next steps for the State Board⁷.

Working on chronic absence in Maryland?

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Sources

Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). State Superintendent Announces Four-Year Decline in Chronic Absenteeism Rate (news release) (opens in a new tab) (2026-09-10)
Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). State MCAP Scores Reach Five-Year High in English Language Arts and Mathematics (news release) (opens in a new tab) (2026-07-28)
Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). Maryland Shows Up! Improving Attendance and Reducing Chronic Absences (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
American Enterprise Institute (Nat Malkus). From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025, Table A3. State-Reported Chronic Absenteeism Data, by State, School Years 2017-25 (school years referred to by the spring year: columns 2017 to 2025, Maryland 2017 blank; 2019 = 2018-19, 2024 = 2023-24, 2025 = 2024-25; rates rounded to whole percent) (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)
American Enterprise Institute. From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025 (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)
Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). Maryland Report Card, Definitions: Chronic Absenteeism (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). MSDE Releases Annual Maryland School Report Card (news release) (opens in a new tab) (2025-11-04)
Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). A Comprehensive Toolkit: Improving School Attendance (April 2026), Appendix A (opens in a new tab) (2026-04)
Maryland General Assembly (mgaleg.maryland.gov). Md. Code, Education § 7-302 (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland General Assembly (mgaleg.maryland.gov). Md. Code, Education § 7-302.1 (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland General Assembly (mgaleg.maryland.gov). Md. Code, Education § 7-301 (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland Division of State Documents, Library of Maryland Regulations (regs.maryland.gov). COMAR 13A.08.01.01 Attendance (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland Division of State Documents, Library of Maryland Regulations (regs.maryland.gov). COMAR 13A.08.01.05 Student Attendance Policy (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (reproducing COMAR). Md. Code Regs. 13A.08.01.03 Lawful Absence (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland Division of State Documents, Library of Maryland Regulations (regs.maryland.gov). COMAR 13A.08.01.04 Unlawful Absence (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland Division of State Documents, Library of Maryland Regulations (regs.maryland.gov). COMAR 13A.08.01 General Regulations, Administrative History (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (reproducing COMAR). Md. Code Regs. 13A.08.01.07 Student Withdrawal Status (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-13 (accessed))
Maryland General Assembly (mgaleg.maryland.gov). 2025 Laws of Maryland, Chapter 243 (House Bill 879): Task Force to Improve Attendance and Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools (opens in a new tab) (2025-05-06 (approved))