Study: A school-based material needs intervention for chronic absenteeism: a state-wide staggered interrupted time series analysis
A program that puts caseworkers in schools where students struggle to regularly attend is apparently working in Michigan: The chronic absenteeism rate dropped by 8 percent.
Chronic absenteeism, or missing 10% or more school days, in K-12 schools is surging nationwide. Michigan is among the hardest-hit states.
A new University of Michigan analysis, which was federally funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, finds that a Michigan-based intervention, Pathways to Potential, helped reduce chronic absenteeism.
Previous studies have indicated that many absentee cases involve socioeconomically disadvantaged students and underserved communities.
"School-based interventions that identify and address students' and their families' basic needs are critical for tackling chronic absenteeism and eliminating educational disparities," said Rebeccah Sokol, associate professor in U-M's School of Social Work and School of Public Health.
The chronic absenteeism rate, which is currently around 30 percent nationwide, was nearly 28% in the 2024-2025 school year in Michigan. Missing so much school puts students at greater risk for lower academic performance, social and behavioral challenges, and long-term consequences such as reduced job prospects and poorer health. The problem has intensified since the COVID-19 pandemic.
How P2P Works
Launched in 2012 by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the program embedded caseworkers directly inside public schools. These "success coaches" helped families overcome the barriers that keep students from attending school consistently.
The support ranged from everyday needs-like securing an alarm clock, winter clothing, or transportation-to addressing complex structural challenges such as housing instability, food insecurity and parents with no or low wages. Success coaches also connected families to school and community resources and directly enrolled them in MDHHS programs.
Study details
Researchers analyzed data from 160 Michigan K-12 public schools that implemented P2P between 2012 and 2016. Using student attendance data from 2008-2009 through 2018-2019, they applied a staggered interrupted time series design-modeling the impact of P2P in each school and combining the results using random-effects meta-analysis. Additional analysis explored which schools benefited most.
The results: addressing students' and families' basic needs is a critical strategy for reducing chronic absenteeism.
Why the research matters
Sokol and colleagues noted that chronic absenteeism has no single cause-and no single solution. But this research suggests that improving attendance requires multi-layered, community-driven approaches that make it easier and more feasible for students to show up each day.
"By tackling socioeconomic barriers head-on, programs like P2P may be essential to reversing troubling attendance trends and improving long-term educational and health outcomes for Michigan's children," she said.
These results, according to the researchers, underscore a critical message for educators and policymakers alike: meaningful progress on chronic absenteeism will require layered, comprehensive solutions that make getting to school not just possible, but easier for the students who face the steepest hurdles.
The study, which appeared in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, was written by Sokol; Michelle Degli Esposti, University of Oxford; Bryan Victor, Wayne State University; Poco Kernsmith, UCLA; Victor Medina Del Toro, Justin Heinze, and Jorge Portugal, U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention; and Robin Grinnell and Eric Gernaat, both at P2P (MDHHS).
