Overview

• EdTrust gave Ohio a mixed review, praising hourly attendance tracking and biannual chronic-absence data collection but warning that investments to reduce absences are limited and may be unsustainable.
• Ohio’s chronic absenteeism rate stood at 25.1% in 2024–25, with roughly one in three charter school students chronically absent, even as rates have fallen from pandemic-era peaks.
• Lawmakers set aside $1.5 million for the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network backed by the Cleveland Browns Foundation, alongside emerging school-based health initiatives, though long-term funding remains uncertain.
• Ohio schools must implement updated attendance plans next school year as the state shifts from penalizing unexcused absences to earlier support for students at risk of falling chronically absent.
• Indiana reported a third straight year of improvement and enacted SEA 482 to define chronic absenteeism and bar expulsions or suspensions solely for attendance issues, with nearly one in three seniors still chronically truant.