What Pittsburgh Is Doing to Ensure Every Child Has a Fighting Chance to Succeed

Abstract

In their 2011 National Civic Review article, Hedy Chang and Phyllis Jordan outlined the strategies necessary for promoting public awareness and galvanizing public and nonprofit resources to address the root causes of chronic absenteeism.1 Since that 2011 article, the conversation around chronic absenteeism has lead it to be one of the most important education policy issues of today. In their 2012 The Importance of Being in School: A Report on Absenteeism in the Nation’s Public Schools, Robert Balfanz and Vaughan Bynes provided data that indicated that 5 million to 7.5 million students are chronically absent each year.2 In a 2014 issue of Urban Education, Michael Gottfried found that neighborhood context, particularly for urban youth, directly related to educational outcomes such as school attendance.3 In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act was signed into law with a requirement that states report chronic absenteeism rates, and that federal dollars could be used to reduce chronic absenteeism in local schools and districts.