Students missing school; Florida’s rising chronic absenteeism problem

Parents, have you ever wondered how often your child missed school?

While the occasional day off might not have seemed significant, the cumulative effect could have led to serious consequences.

Recent data revealed a troubling trend in Florida: chronic absenteeism, with students missing 10% or more of the school year.

Since 2018, Florida has seen a staggering 54.5% increase in chronic absenteeism, reaching 30.9% for the 2022-23 school year, making it the seventh highest in the nation.

Understanding the issue

Charlene Towe knows the daily challenge well—getting her middle schooler, Jasmine, out of bed and off to school.

“She hates school,” Towe said. “It was a constant job to get her up or motivated to go to school.”

Charlene requested we not show Jasmine’s face but shared that Jasmine missed at least 20 days last school year.

By definition, Jasmine was “chronically absent.”

“Because of her absences, though, you’ve received letters from the school,” asked WINK News Anchor Emma Heaton.

“Oh, yeah,” responded Charlene. “I even told her, ‘Jazz, you’re going to make me have to go to court because of your absence.’ It’s something that I have in mind, but it’s not something that I’m just like, oh my gosh, isn’t that a big deal to me.”

The Rules

Florida law mandates schools follow specific rules for skipping school.

After five unexcused absences in a month, the case goes to the school’s child study team. If a pattern persists, the school may file a truancy petition in juvenile court, where families might face Collier County Judge Erik Leontiev.

“By the time they come here, you know, sometimes the question is not how many days did they miss, it is how many days have they been there,” said Judge Leontiev.

Florida Health Charts data shows chronic absenteeism has spiked across our state.

• In 2020: 9.5% of Lee County students had missed 21 or more days from school.
• In 2023: That number had more than doubled to 21.9%.
• Collier: 4.7% in 2020, 19.4% in 2023.
• Charlotte: 6.2% in 2020, 17.7% in 2023.
• The story had been the same in Glades and Hendry County, a steep slope up.

The Consequences

“I think the common denominator, at least that I see in this courtroom, and after having done hundreds of these cases and talked to parents, talk to the students, talk to the school administrators within the proceedings, it’s come down, in my view to basically two issues. One is that the parents are unengaged,” said Judge Leontiev.

Judge Leontiev said parents lose control over their kids to influences like social media and negative peer groups and then struggle to get that control back.

The second issue is discipline.

“Children who are essentially undisciplined in terms of their motivation. They’re just not motivated to go to school,” said Leontiev.

Issues include lack of motivation, single parents working multiple jobs, students working or taking care of younger siblings, and parents who have just given up trying to engage with their children.

A lot of them say, well, I just don’t want to go to school.
I tell them, well, there are a lot of things you don’t want to do. The Honorable Erik Leontiev
Circuit Judge

In Jasmine’s case, anxiety had kept her from wanting to go to school. 

“I mean, going back to the mother – getting up at five and working three jobs. She may not want to do that. But that’s life, you know, and you need to be ready in life to do things that you don’t want to do,” added Judge Leontiev.

There are consequences to chronic absenteeism, not only the loss of learning and vital instruction time.

Students are more likely to experience diminished academic achievement, more likely to be chronically absent in later grades, more likely to drop out, and less likely to graduate high school.

FGCU College of Education Professor Jennifer Sughrue and Judge Leontiev explained the problem goes beyond the classroom.

“You’re going to become adults and not have good paying jobs, maybe engaged in crime, whatever it is, because they have faced such failure that stems not only from their own absenteeism but all these other factors, too. It’s only going to be a larger problem,” said Sughrue.

“I have kids that start out in truancy, and in a very short while, they’re in my delinquency court, or they’re coming out the side door because they picked up charges. Rather than being in school, they were out committing crime,” said Judge Leontiev.

The Solutions

It’s a call for engagement, discipline, and support systems.

“The solutions are going to be the same. I mean, I have to be engaged with my kids. And there’s this thinking, perhaps, that when they get older, you become less engaged, but they need you at every stage of their upbringing,” said Judge Leontiev.

Because at stake are students’ success and their future.

As far as policies currently in place, there are provisions in the law that hold parents accountable.

It is a second-degree misdemeanor if parents refuse to take their children to school after some of these interventions have been made.

Here are some things Professor Sughrue said parents can do if their child is resistant to going to school:

• Teaching them the value of education is not something to be taken lightly.
• If you can’t be there to see them out the door, tell them you trust them to do it – and stay in close contact with your child.
• Stay in close contact with their school.

Of course, virtual schooling and homeschooling are other options.