Fewer Maryland students are missing school after post-pandemic absenteeism spike

Attendance in Maryland public schools is bouncing back after years of high absence rates following the pandemic.

Maryland’s chronic absenteeism rate, when students miss 10% or more of school, stood at 30.9% in the 2021-22 school year. Last school year, it was down to 22.8%, a 2.2-percentage-point drop from the prior year, state officials announced Thursday. They have a plan to bring it to 15%, building on the success of schools like Baltimore County’s Sudbrook Magnet Middle.

State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright shared the Maryland State Department of Education’s new attendance campaign at a press conference in the middle school. The effort, called “Maryland Shows Up,” promotes the importance of going to school every day through billboards, radio announcements and public transportation advertisements, along with targeted efforts inside schools.

The education department reported that students who were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year were less likely to be proficient on the state’s standardized tests than regular attendees. Even excused absences have “short-term and long-term impacts on students from all backgrounds,” said Joshua Michael, president of the Maryland State Board of Education.

Wright encouraged educators to understand why students are missing a lot of school.

She said one principal was told that a family kept its child home on rainy days because they didn’t own an umbrella. The student would be soaked all day from the walk to school.

“So what did this principal do? They bought an umbrella,” Wright said. “Unless we know what those issues are, it’s not going to help us help getting kids back in school.”

Baltimore County is in its fourth year of its own attendance campaign called “Here for It,” which provides tools, resources and suggested activities to raise awareness about the importance of attendance. After launching the campaign in July 2023, Baltimore County had the state’s biggest reduction in chronic absenteeism in 2024, according to Superintendent Bill Heiser. By 2025, 10,000 more kids were attending class regularly, he said.

Martin Boulevard Elementary School in Middle River cut its chronic absenteeism rate from 24% to 18% in just one year, Wright said. And Sudbrook Principal Gordon Webb said his magnet school went from 22% to 6% in four years.

Webb said he meets with a team every other week to identify students who are chronically absent and who are teetering between good attendance and missing too many days. Lack of transportation and having to care for other kids are some of the barriers his students face, he said.

He and his team speak with families about the hurdles and assign students mentors, teachers or even other students who can regularly check in on them.

“We make sure that we’re connecting with them and making sure there’s a sense of belonging,” Webb said.

School district and state officials toured Sudbrook Middle alongside Maryland’s first lady, Dawn Moore, who greeted kids in each classroom. “I really appreciate the opportunity to see our brilliant students in action,” she said after the tour.

Michael called on parents to help improve attendance rates.

“The Disney cruise is cheaper the first week of December,” he said. “Sometimes we have to make sacrifices as adults to show children that being in school as many of the 180 days as you can as possible is important.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.