The Attendance Crisis Isn’t Over: What’s Driving It—and What Works


Wednesday, November 18
1:00 pm-2:00 pm ET

Chronic absenteeism has become one of the defining post-pandemic challenges facing schools. In this one-hour webinar, hosted by AERA and The 74, our panelists will explore why attendance rates have remained stubbornly low; which interventions are supported by evidence; what successful states and districts are doing; how families, community organizations, and public agencies can help; and how more timely data can support effective action.

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Free Public Event with Moderated Q&A

About the Panelists

Robert Balfanz is a Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Center for Social Organization of Schools, and Director of the Everyone Graduates Center. His work focuses on translating research findings into effective school improvement strategies and educational reforms. He conducts research and organizes improvement efforts on secondary school redesign, improving high school graduation and college readiness rates, student success systems, chronic absenteeism, and instructional improvements in high-poverty schools. Currently, he leads the GRAD Partnership, a collaborative effort of non-profits and school districts to scale the use of high-quality student success (on-track) systems. He also works with the Partnership for Student Success, a coalition of over 200 non-profits, 200 school districts, and 70 higher education institutions working to expand evidence-based student supports (mentors, tutors, success coaches, post-secondary advisors, and wraparound supports) in schools and communities nationwide.

Hedy Chang is the founder and chief executive officer of the non-profit initiative Attendance Works (www.attendanceworks.org), the nation’s go-to resource for attendance policy and practice.  Founded in 2010, Attendance Works successfully moved chronic absence from a little-known term to a required reporting and optional school accountability metric in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Hedy co-authored the seminal report, Present, Engaged and Accounted For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades, as well as numerous other articles about student attendance.

Sarah Winchell Lenhoff is the Leonard Kaplan Endowed Professor and Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Wayne State University. She is the director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research (Detroit PEER), a research center at Wayne State that partners with policymakers, educators, and community members to produce research that informs improvements in the Detroit education ecosystem. Her research examines how education and other social policies shape access to educational opportunity. Her recent projects have examined barriers to student attendance and practices to reduce chronic absenteeism; racial equity in school choice policy implementation; and how mixed-income neighborhood transformation shapes young people’s social networks and, in turn, their educational and economic opportunities. She is the co-author of Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism: Why Schools Can’t Solve it Alone. She began her career as a New York City Public Schools teacher.

Moderator

Welcome

Kevin Mahnken is an education journalist at The 74, where he covers topics including civics instruction, pandemic learning loss, and K–12 policy in the states. He has helped coordinate the publication of dozens of research studies, white papers, and book chapters at Washington D.C.'s Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He also wrote and edited articles for the institute's website. His coverage of education news and politics included pieces on testing, curriculum, and school discipline. Before moving to education coverage, Kevin wrote about national politics and culture for The New Republic, where he served as a reporter and fact checker. His coverage there ranged from Obamacare implementation to the government shutdown to horrible advertisements for tequila. Prior to that, he interned at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the United States Senate. His writing has appeared in Quillette, the New Republic, the Atlantic, and The Washington Post. 

Tabbye M. Chavous Named New Executive Director of the American Educational Research Association

Tabbye Chavous is executive director of the American Educational Research Association, beginning her position in August 2025. A nationally recognized scholar and seasoned leader, Chavous brings over 25 years of experience and significant accomplishments in research, teaching, and organizational advancement. Across her career, she has consistently advocated for high-quality, inclusive research, and her equity-oriented leadership is evident in her approaches to building and transforming educational environments. Chavous joined AERA from the University of Michigan, where she was a professor of education and psychology and served as vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. An experienced administrative leader, Chavous held numerous positions at the University of Michigan at the central administration, college, and department levels. Chavous holds a PhD in community psychology from the University of Virginia, and she has dedicated her career to educational equity, advancing strengths-based frameworks for studying the experiences of marginalized communities and working with educational systems to draw on this knowledge in ways that serve all students. 

Nicole Ridgway is editor in chief of The 74, where she manages all aspects of the nonprofit newsroom, from daily coverage to broader editorial strategy. She joined the organization in 2024, following more than 25 years of experience at national media outlets. Prior to joining The 74, Ridgway served as a managing editor of CNN Business, where she oversaw the economy, personal finance, opinion and thought leadership coverage. While there, she helped launch new storytelling and content initiatives, standing up a team focused on income inequality and the impact of economic policies on local communities, as well as a consumer-focused investigative reporting team. She also helped launch live events, newsletters, and other editorial products. Prior to CNN, Ridgway served in leadership roles at AOL, SmartMoney and Forbes. She is the author of The Running of the Bulls: Inside the Cutthroat Race from Wharton to Wall Street.
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