Five-year-olds can be chronically absent or truant, too

Schools are rightly working to fix chronic absenteeism, but much of the focus is on higher grades and ignores kindergarten, the grade with the most absences before high school. Getting those kids in school deserves at least as much focus, writes Kalman Hettleman.

By: Kalman Hettleman

Outlets: Maryland Matters

Published: October 12, 2026

Words: 777

Last Updated: 4 days, 20 hours ago

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Chronic absenteeism has become a much-publicized national crisis since the pandemic. The face of it is teenagers who are rebellious, bored by school (often for good reason), and beyond parent control.

But we overlook at great cost the chronic absenteeism of much younger students. It begins with absent kindergartners, and there an alarming number of them: about 35% nationally. Happily, Maryland’s rate is much lower, as discussed later, but still not nearly low enough.

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