The Causal Effect of Student Absences Post Pandemic: Evidence from Three School Systems

Yu Hung Yaow (), Seth Gershenson (), David Blazar () and Ethan Hutt
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Yu Hung Yaow: University of Maryland
Seth Gershenson: American University
David Blazar: University of Maryland
Ethan Hutt: UNC Chapel Hill

No 18652, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Researchers, educators, and policymakers have long worried about the consequences of student absences for educational achievement and attainment—concerns that have grown with the significant rise in absenteeism during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. Using administrative data from Maryland, North Carolina, and a large urban school district, we find that the impact of absences on test scores was modestly (about 5 to 20%) smaller in 2022-23 than in 2018-19 but still practically and statistically significant. Consistent with prior research, these harmful effects of absences are approximately linear and exhibit little heterogeneity across race and gender pre-Covid. In Maryland, the impact of tenth-grade absences on high-school graduation and 2-year college enrollment was much (about 40%) smaller after the pandemic than before, but the impact of absences on any (2- or 4-year) college enrollment increased slightly. Post-Covid reductions in the harmful effects were larger for white students on test scores and larger for Black students on graduation.

Keywords: chronic absence; attendance; learning loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05
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