States / Colorado

Chronic absence in Colorado

Where things stand, what state rules ask of each role, and what is changing. For school and district leaders.

School year 2025-26

27.5%

of students were chronically absent¹

Chronically absent means absent 10 percent or more of the days enrolled during the school year, counting excused and unexcused absences.²

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)⁴

Colorado, year by year

Colorado chronic absence by school year
School year	Chronically absent
2020-21	26.0%
2021-22	34.5%
2022-23	31.1%
2023-24	27.7%
2024-25	28.4%
2025-26	27.5%

Dashed bars mark years the state did not publish a rate.

The numbers

In 2025-26, 27.5% of Colorado students were chronically absent: 233,281 students, or more than 1 in 4¹.
That is down from 28.4% in 2024-25, which the state says means about 11,000 fewer chronically absent students¹.
The rate peaked at 34.5% in 2021-22. It fell to 27.7% in 2023-24, rose to 28.4% in 2024-25 and fell to 27.5% in 2025-26. Before the pandemic, in 2018-19, it was 22.5%¹.
Some groups are far above the state rate: homeless students (57.5%), students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (38.6%), migrant students (37.9%), multilingual learners (37.0%) and students with IEPs (34.9%)¹.
Hispanic or Latino (37.2%) and Black or African American (32.7%) students were above the state average, while White (20.4%) and Asian (16.2%) students were below it. Every grade level improved, but 30% of 7th through 10th graders are still chronically absent¹.
Nationally, 22.6% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25; Colorado's rate that year was 28.4%^4,1.

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

Schools must record attendance at least once during each scheduled school day⁹.
For state reporting, a student absent more than 50 percent of any attendance period in a scheduled school day counts as absent for that whole period, and a student present 50 percent or more counts as present. A remote-learning allowance applied only in the 2020-21 school year⁹.
Districts and their schools must report attendance as precisely as their student information system allows, such as by minutes, hours or periods⁹.
Schools may require documentation to verify excused absences. If authorized school officials find a parent's excuse is not valid or verified, the absence is unexcused⁹.

Counselors

As part of the district's plan for a habitually truant child, appropriate school personnel must make all reasonable efforts to meet with the parent, guardian or legal custodian to review and evaluate the reasons for the child's truancy⁶.
School personnel are encouraged, not required, to work with the local community services group to develop the plan. That group can be the local juvenile services planning committee, the local collaborative management group, or another local group of public agencies that works with the district to provide student support services⁶.
Compulsory attendance does not apply to a child who is temporarily ill or injured or whose absence the school's administrator approves; who is absent for an extended period due to a physical disability or a mental or behavioral health disorder; or who is excused for a therapy, medical, legal or victim services appointment, or for behavioral or mental health concerns, related to harassment or discrimination. The law lists other exemptions too⁷.
District boards are encouraged, not required, to set procedures for identifying chronically absent students and to use best practices and research-based strategies to improve their attendance⁷.

Attendance team

A child is habitually truant if the child is six on or before August 1 of the year in question, is under seventeen, and has four unexcused absences in any one month or ten in any academic year. Absences due to suspension or expulsion count as excused⁵.
For state reporting, a month means a calendar month, and tardies do not count toward habitual truancy⁹.
Each district board must designate one or more employees as attendance officer. In appropriate cases, the officer's duty is to counsel with students and parents, investigate the causes of nonattendance and report to the local board⁶.
District policies may also include procedures to flag each child with a significant number of unexcused absences and work with the parent and local partners on the likely causes, including nonacademic issues. They may also set up a system in which school staff or volunteers make a reasonable effort to phone the parent when a child fails to report on a scheduled school day and staff have no sign the parent knows; anyone who gives or fails to give that notice in good faith is immune from liability⁶.
Districts must apply the same definitions of excused and unexcused absences in all their schools. By September 15 each year, each board must report every student's attendance for the preceding academic year to the state, including days attended, excused, unexcused and possible, and who was habitually truant^9,6.

Principals & districts

Each district board must adopt and implement attendance policies and procedures, including ones to work with habitually truant children. They must provide for a plan, developed with the goal of helping the child stay in school and, when practicable, with the full participation of the parent, guardian or legal custodian⁶.
The board must adopt a written attendance policy. It must provide for excused absences, including the exemptions from compulsory attendance and temporary absences due to behavioral health concerns, and it may include appropriate penalties for unexcused absences. It must set the maximum number of unexcused absences before the district's attorney, the attendance officer or the board may start court proceedings, counting all unexcused absences in any calendar year or school year⁷.
A school district shall go to court to compel attendance only as a last resort, and only if the child is still habitually truant after school or district staff have created and implemented a plan to improve attendance. It must first give the child and parent written notice that names the rules to follow and says it will not file if the child complies before filing; if notice and summons are combined, the filing date must be at least five days later⁸.
In court, the district must at a minimum show the child's attendance record before and after being identified as habitually truant, whether the child was identified as chronically absent and the strategies used, the interventions used before the plan, and the plan and everyone's efforts to carry it out⁸.
The plan must comply with § 22-33-108(7) and include appropriate sanctions, other than juvenile detention, for a habitually truant child who refuses to comply with it. Under that subsection, if a child does not obey a valid court order, the court may order a neglect assessment and contempt proceedings, with sanctions such as community service, supervised activities or services for at-risk students. For a child who refused the plan, detention is capped at forty-eight hours and allowed only if the court finds it is in the best interest of the child and the public, after weighing factors including evidence that detaining children for truancy alone is counterproductive; there is a rebuttable presumption of credit for time served^6,8.

What changed lately

In January 2025, the state asked the U.S. Department of Education to amend its ESSA plan. The changes, approved on April 18, 2025 for the fall 2025 school identifications, put excused absences back into the chronic absence measure, as before the pandemic, and added chronic absence as a measure for K-2 schools¹⁰.
A 2023 law, H.B. 23-1241, created a 26-member task force to study the state's accountability and accreditation system. Its final report was released on November 7, 2024¹³.

How the state holds schools to it

For federal ESSA school identification, chronic absence is the School Quality and Student Success indicator for elementary and middle schools¹⁰.
In 2021, because of the pandemic, the state changed that measure to leave out parent-excused absences. Starting with the fall 2025 identifications, it again counts excused and unexcused absences and also covers K-2 schools¹⁰.
The state also uses student-level attendance data in deciding which schools are identified for Comprehensive Support¹¹.
The state's own performance frameworks, which set accreditation and school plan type ratings, use three performance indicators: achievement, growth, and postsecondary and workforce readiness¹².
The state publishes statewide attendance, truancy and chronic absence rates, and posts each district's aggregated attendance information on its website^2,6.
The state education department has set a goal to reduce chronic absenteeism by more than 50% from the pandemic high in 2021-22¹.

Efforts with results

The state's attendance campaign challenges districts to cut chronic absence from pandemic highs in half over five years. As of August 2026, 110 schools from 83 districts had joined³.
Progress so far: the statewide rate is down 7.0 percentage points from the 2021-22 high, and after four years eighteen districts have cut their rates by more than 50%. In 2025-26, 113 of 185 districts and BOCES held steady or improved on chronic absenteeism¹.