A new report from the U.S. Department of Education finds that nearly 1 in 7 public school students miss too many days from school — at least 10 percent of the school year.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“This data is a call to action for states and communities to use the attendance data that they collect every day as an early warning sign that can be used to trigger action and support before students miss so much school they require costly remediation to make up for the missed instruction,” Professor Robert Balfanz of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University said in a statement released by Attendance Works, a San Francisco-based policy group.

On this week’s Education Next podcast, Robert Balfanz talks with Paul Peterson about the causes of chronic absenteeism and some promising approaches for fighting it.

In some schools, principals are able to recruit mentors from the community and draw on existing staff (including cafeteria workers and security guards) to ensure that every student at risk of chronic absenteeism can build a relationship with an adult who is focused on that student’s attendance.

– Education Next