#  The Low-Cost, Low-Lift Way These Districts Used to Reduce Student Absences 

 





One relatively simple and low-cost intervention for rural districts has the potential to reduce student absences by nearly 5%, according to new research.



 

June 06, 2025

 

 

That intervention: Sending periodic, personalized messages to parents about their children’s attendance—the good, the bad, and the ugly—to equip them with more real-time, actionable data so they can be aware and intervene before attendance problems develop, or as they do but before they come more serious.

[In the study](https://edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai25-1189.pdf)—which included 47 small, rural districts across 16 states that serve more than 41,000 students—researchers from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, and the nonprofit Partners for Rural Impact found that the automated messages reduced student absences, on average, by up to 5% and cost just $4 per student to implement. For a student who missed 20% of the school year, or 36 days in a typical 180-day school year—a 5% reduction in absences worked out to attending school two more days over the course of the academic year, a small but notable bump in attendance that was also higher for some students in the study.

The benefits were more pronounced for students in special education and those who were chronically absent the year prior. The intervention also proved to have a greater effect at the high school level than for elementary and middle school students.

“What we found is that, on average, it is worthwhile in terms of the cost—where the cost is mostly the time spent to set it up—relative to the effects on absenteeism,” said Elise Swanson, the associate director of research at Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research. “On average, it is worthwhile for districts.”

Read the full article at [edweek.org.](https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-low-cost-low-lift-way-these-districts-used-to-reduce-student-absences/2025/06)



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Attendance ](/focus-areas/attendance)
- [ In the News ](/cepr-in-the-news)
- [ Research Initiatives for College and Career Success (RICCS) ](/projects/research-initiatives-college-and-career-success-riccs)
- [ National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) ](/projects/national-center-rural-education-research-networks-ncrern)
- [ 2025 ](/year/2025)
- [ K12 ](/sector/k12)
 
 

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