@EdWorkingPaper{ai26-1574,
title = "The Post-Pandemic “Attendance Crisis” in Historical Perspective",
author = "Jeremy Singer",
number = "1574",
year = "2026",
month = "September",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1574",
abstract = {School attendance rates in the United States are lower now than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This rise in absenteeism has often been characterized as a crisis; but whether it amounts to a broader breakdown in norms depends on the historical baseline against which it is judged. The recent decline in attendance rates represents a small setback within a much longer trajectory of increasing school participation. This perspective helps distinguish a modest national shift in attendance from the deeper and more concentrated barriers to improving attendance that long predate the pandemic.},
}