People and Place Matter: Using Integrated Data Systems to Understand Chronic Absenteeism

In the United States, one in ten students are chronically absent. Often, chronic absence results when a student faces a health issue or challenging family circumstance. A student’s neighborhood also has an effect and students living in poorer neighborhoods generally have more trouble in school and experience higher rates of chronic absence. This brief discusses recent work by members of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership in Pinellas County, Florida and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to understand the effects of neighborhood and individual characteristics on chronic absenteeism. Given the effect of neighborhoods, combining individual-level data from integrated data systems with neighborhood data can better inform communities and improve interventions to help students.