One of the larger hindrances of public education after the COVID-19 pandemic was a dramatic rise in chronic student absenteeism. However, new state data released Thursday indicates schools are continuing to recover from this.

According to the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), student attendance increased by 0.7 percentage points, up to 91.5%, while chronic absenteeism decreased by 3.4 percentage points to 27.7% in the 2023-24 school year.

Both figures reflect continued trends from the previous school year with attendance rising and absenteeism dropping. A state-high rate of chronic absenteeism was recorded at 35.5% during the 2021-22 school year.

“We know that our educators and school leaders are working urgently to keep students engaged and feeling connected to their school communities, and we see that effort reflected in attendance and chronic absentee rates,” Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said in a statement regarding the data.

“If students aren’t in school, we know they won’t have access to the opportunities designed to help them continue learning.”

Chronic absenteeism is defined by the CDE as students missing at least 10% of the school year. Across the nation, about 1 in 4 students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year.

Despite the positive trends, statewide attendance has yet to reach pre-COVID marks. In 2019-20, the state average for attendance was 92.8% and the average chronic absentee rate was 22.6%.

This year, more than 241,000 of the state’s 902,854 students were chronically absent.

The trend of missing significant school time coincides with declining test scores during the same years, contributing to substantial learning losses and greater high school dropout rates.

“And we have found that even missing a couple of days here and there can cause problems,” Córdova said. “In the early grades, multiple absences can cause students to fall behind on their reading skills. And in fact, 83% of chronically absent kids are not reading on grade level by third grade.”

Factors contributing to chronic absenteeism beyond the pandemic include students experiencing homelessness, transportation challenges, disengagement and personal and family illnesses.

“So, some of those we have seen increase over time even if they’re not necessarily new ones,” said Johann Liljengren, CDE director of dropout prevention and student re-engagement.

State data also revealed rates of chronic absenteeism continuing to decline and attendance to rise for unhoused, migrant, special-needs and multilingual students along with students of color and those who were economically disadvantaged.

Nearly 70% of Colorado’s districts improved their attendance rates last year. The districts with the highest reported rates of chronic absenteeism last year included Adams County 14 (48.9%), Centennial R-1 (53.5%), Hanover 28 (46.6 %) and Ouray R-1 (60.5%).

The Centennial Board of Cooperative Educational Services reported the highest rate of chronic absenteeism at 80.8%.

This week, the CDE also released its statewide testing results that revealed promising signs of COVID recovery, though not at high school levels.

To help promote attendance in school and continue to these positive trajectories, the CDE announced the “Every School Day Matters” campaign. Its goal is to support students, families, and educators in reducing chronic absenteeism to 17.8% by the 2026-27 school year.

The online portal will include training and resources for educators and school leaders, communications tools for districts and an attendance tracking calendar in English and Spanish for families.

“What data tells us, what the research has found and what common sense show is that you can’t grow academically if you’re not in school,” Córdova said.

The campaign’s resources along with complete attendance data can be found at the CDE’s website.