TASK FORCE TO IMPROVE ATTENDANCE & REDUCE CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM IN SCHOOLS

Appointed by Senate President: one vacancy

Appointed by House Speaker: one vacancy

Appointed by State Superintendent of Schools: twelve vacancies

Nancy S. Grasmick State Education Building, 200 West Baltimore St., Baltimore, Maryland, October 2019. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

c/o Division of Student Support & Federal Programs
State Department of Education
Nancy S. Grasmick State Education Building, 200 West Baltimore St., Baltimore, MD 21201 - 2595
(410) 767-0472
e-mail: mary.gable@maryland.gov

In July 2025, the General Assembly authorized the Task Force to Improve Attendance and Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools (Chapter 243, Acts of 2025).

Regarding chronic absenteeism by students from schools in Maryland, the Task Force charge is to collect and analyze data, including research, student attendance collection practices, and trends in statewide and local student attendance. The Task Force also will identify and evaluate local and national strategies and best practices to address chronic absenteeism; identify differentiated and comprehensive responses for such absenteeism that prioritize prevention and intervention; and set a statewide goal for the reduction of chronic absenteeism. To identify and further prevent it, the Task Forde is to develop and distribute guidance to local school systems; develop and distribute a toolkit for school leaders in each grade band (elementary, middle, & high school) that includes culturally responsive and nonpunitive strategies for reducing student absences; and establish categories that identify reasons for chronic absenteeism, and collect data for each corresponding category for each local school system.

Further, the Tsk Force will make recommendations on a single definition of chronic absenteeism; the role that the community, public agencies, public school systems, and schools, parents, and students play in solving the problem of chronic absenteeism; and best practices for data collection relating to such absenteeism and tracking student attendance. Moreover, to prevent and eliminate chronic absenteeism, the Task Force will recommend the most effective practices that are culturally responsive and nonpunitive.

Fourteen members constitute the Task Force. Of these, the State Superintendent of Schools appoints twelve members, and the Senate President and the House Speaker each appoint one member. The Task Force chooses the Chair.

Authorization for the Task Force ends December 31, 2026.

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