Do Teachers Perceive Absent Students Differently?

When it comes to understanding the consequences of school absenteeism, how missing school might be linked to student-teacher relationships remains relatively unexplored. Our work helps to further detail this context by specifically investigating whether teachers’ perceptions of students are different based on how frequently those students are absent. We explore this in early elementary school—a period marked by high rates of student absenteeism not witnessed again until early adolescence. Using a nationally representative dataset of children in kindergarten through second grade, we found that teachers felt less close with students who had more absences compared to students with fewer absences. Findings also suggested teachers had lower perceptions of absent students’ classroom social skills compared to the perceptions that they held for less-absent students. Finally, teachers had lower ratings of learning approaches as well as lower ratings of language and math abilities for students who were more absent. Recommendations for policy and practice are discussed.