States / Pennsylvania

Chronic absence in Pennsylvania

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

School year 2024-25

21%

of students were chronically absent¹

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

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)²

Five-year trend

Pennsylvania, year by year

Pennsylvania chronic absence by school year
School year	Chronically absent
2019-20	15%
2020-21	18%
2021-22	26%
2022-23	22%
2023-24	21%
2024-25	21%

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

Where things stand

The numbers

In 2024-25, 21% of Pennsylvania students were chronically absent, the same rate as in 2023-24¹.
The rate rose from 15% in 2019-20 to a peak of 26% in 2021-22, and has come down since, but it is still well above where it was before the pandemic¹.
In Pittsburgh Public Schools, earlier progress reversed: chronic absence during the 2024-2025 school year rose from 32% to 34%⁴.
Pittsburgh Public Schools data show even higher rates for students experiencing homelessness (64%) and students in foster care (58%)⁵.
Pennsylvania's 21% for 2024-25 is a little below the US rate of 22.6%^1,2.

Requirements by role

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

Every principal or teacher (and every private tutor) is required to report at once to the child's home district (the superintendent, attendance officer, home and school visitor or school board secretary) when a child of compulsory school age withdraws or has been absent three days, or their equivalent, without a lawful excuse⁶.
Under state regulation, a principal or teacher may excuse a student for a temporary period on satisfactory evidence of mental, physical or other urgent reasons. "Urgent reasons" is strictly construed and does not permit irregular attendance, temporary excusals may not exceed 3 months, and the district must adopt rules for these excusals (§ 11.25(a))⁷.
State guidance (not law) says schools should require teachers to meet with students individually and contact the parent or guardian to encourage better attendance⁶.

Counselors

Schools must determine whether a child may be truant or chronically absent because of a disability or a medical condition; state guidance says that if a student with a disability is truant or chronically absent, the school should convene the IEP team to decide whether the IEP needs revising⁶.
State guidance says student assistance (SAP) teams should be told of all unlawful absences, and that bullying, family health, substance abuse, homelessness and mental health problems cause non-attendance and should be addressed⁶.
Absences caused by homelessness must not be counted as unexcused, and the attendance improvement conference should look for root causes, which may include homelessness and lack of transportation⁶.

Attendance team

A child of compulsory school age is truant after three or more school days of unexcused absences in the current school year, and habitually truant after six or more⁶.
Schools must notify the parent in writing within 10 school days of the child's third unexcused absence. The notice must describe the consequences of becoming habitually truant and be in the parent's preferred language, and may offer a School Attendance Improvement Conference. If it goes to someone who is not the child's biological or adoptive parent, the school must also send it to the biological or adoptive parent, if the address is on file and no court order bars that parent from receiving it⁶.
If unexcused absences continue after the notice, the school must offer the student and parent an attendance improvement conference if it has not already. The child, the parent, people the parent names, appropriate school staff and recommended service providers must be invited; neither the child nor the parent is legally required to attend⁶.
The school must hold the conference even if the parent declines or fails to attend after advance written notice and phone attempts, must not delay it waiting on service providers, and must document the outcome in a written attendance improvement plan on the state form or a similar one⁶.
For a habitually truant child under 15, the school must refer the child to a school-based or community-based attendance improvement program or to the county children and youth agency, and may also file a citation against the parent. For a child 15 or older, the school must either refer the child to such a program or file a citation against the student or parent; if absences continue after the referral, or the child refuses, the school may refer the child to the county agency⁶.

Principals & districts

Each school must adopt a written attendance policy, distribute it to parents annually, and set the maximum number of lawful absences verified by parental notification that it will accept in one school term⁶.
First-, second- and third-class school districts must employ at least one attendance officer or home and school visitor; fourth-class districts may employ one⁶.
Schools may not expel, suspend out of school, or reassign or transfer a student to an alternative education for disruptive youth program for truant behavior⁶.
Schools may not start truancy proceedings until after the attendance improvement conference is held, and must provide verification that it was held when referring a habitually truant child of any age to the county children and youth agency or filing a citation⁶.
Under state regulation, a student absent for 10 consecutive school days must be removed from the active membership roll unless the district has evidence the absence may be legally excused or compulsory attendance prosecution has been or is being pursued (§ 11.24). State guidance adds that standard disenrollment procedures do not apply to a student with an IEP^9,6.

Recent changes

What changed lately

Act 47, first enacted in 2025 and revised in 2026, amended multiple provisions of the Public School Code, including the truancy rules below¹⁰.
Since December 12, 2025, a habitually truant child may not transfer to a cyber charter school during the school year unless a judge determines the transfer is in the child's best interest. Truancy notices must now say so, must be in the parent's preferred mode and language of communication, and must include resources to help the child return to compliant attendance⁸.
Since January 11, 2026, a truancy sentence entered after the school year ends is limited to community service or completing an attendance improvement plan, and when a convicted student is ordered to do community service or an attendance improvement course, program or plan, the court keeps jurisdiction until it is completed⁸.
Since August 1, 2026, the school where a habitually truant child is currently enrolled must keep pursuing remedies after a transfer, schools must report attendance information to the state, and the state education and human services departments must develop best practices to prevent truancy⁸.
Beginning October 10, 2026, truancy notices must also include a notice of the right to request an educational best interest hearing; if no citation has been filed, a parent or a student aged 15 or older may make that request^11,10.

Accountability

How the state holds schools to it

Chronic absence is one of two on-track measures in the Future Ready PA Index that also serve as federal accountability indicators³.
The state counts a student as chronically absent after missing more than 10 percent of enrolled school days, for any reason; students enrolled fewer than 90 days are left out, and rates are calculated for schools with 20 or more students³.
Public reports show it as Regular Attendance: the percentage of students enrolled for 90 or more school days who were present 90 percent or more of those days³.
Regular attendance is scored against norm-referenced performance standards set from 2016-17 data, not the goal-and-interim-target approach used for achievement, English learner progress and graduation rate: 94.1% or higher exceeds the standard, 80.9% to 94.0% meets it, and 80.8% or below does not³.
Two years of chronic absence data are used in the state's ESSA accountability decisions³.

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Sources

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 (columns 2017 to 2025 by spring year; the last value is 2025 = the 2024-25 school year; 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)
Pennsylvania Department of Education. Future Ready PA Index: Information on Indicators and Measures; Guidelines for Reporting Regular Attendance and Chronic Absenteeism (opens in a new tab) (undated (page state 2026-10-13))
90.5 WESA. Pittsburgh's school test scores and absenteeism remain dismal, but English learner population rises (opens in a new tab) (2025-12-02)
90.5 WESA. Pa. educators, state leaders say more collaboration is needed to address chronic absenteeism (opens in a new tab) (2025-05-12)
Pennsylvania Department of Education. Basic Education Circular: Compulsory School Attendance, Unlawful Absences, and School Attendance Improvement Conferences, 24 P.S. §§ 13-1326 – 1354 (state guidance summarizing the law as amended by Act 138 of 2016, Act 39 of 2018 and Act 16 of 2019; not binding) (opens in a new tab) (2006-08-08 (reviewed January 2024))
Legal Information Institute (Pennsylvania Code). 22 Pa. Code § 11.25 - Temporary excusals due to illness or other urgent reasons (opens in a new tab) (amended 2004-10-22, effective 2004-10-23)
Pennsylvania Department of Education. School Code PK-12 Implementation Guide (2025–26 School Code: Implementation Guide; informational, not legal advice) (opens in a new tab) (undated (page state 2026-10-13))
Legal Information Institute (Pennsylvania Code). 22 Pa. Code § 11.24 - Unaccounted absences (opens in a new tab) (amended 2004-10-22, effective 2004-10-23)
Education Law Center-PA. Act 47: New Requirements for Enrollment, Attendance, & Wellness Checks for Cyber Charters & Virtual Programs (fact sheet) (opens in a new tab) (2026-08)
Pennsylvania Department of Education. School Attendance, Chronic Absenteeism, and Truancy Prevention (Pennsylvania Department of Education Resources) (opens in a new tab) (undated (page state 2026-10-13))