States / Delaware

Chronic absence in Delaware

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

School year 2024-25

16.6%

of students were chronically absent²

Chronically absent means missing 10%+ of school days.³

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)¹⁰

Five-year trend

Delaware, year by year

Delaware chronic absence by school year
School year	Chronically absent
2018-19	15%
2020-21	22%
2021-22	24.7%
2022-23	23%
2023-24	20%
2024-25	16.6%

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

Where things stand

The numbers

Chronic absenteeism in Delaware fell from 24.7% in 2021-22 to 16.6% in 2024-25, the state education department reports, citing a national scorecard that labels these years 2022 and 2025².
The department says rates remain slightly above pre-pandemic levels².
AEI's compilation of state-reported data shows the same path, rounded: 15% in 2018-19, 25% in 2021-22 and 17% in 2024-25¹.
On a separate state measure, 79.33% of students met on-track attendance benchmarks in 2024-2025, meaning about one in five missed at least 10% of instructional time⁴.
Delaware is below the national picture: across reporting states, 22.6% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25, which AEI labels 2025¹⁰.
The department credits a coordinated attendance strategy across schools, districts, families and community partners for a drop of more than 8 percentage points since 2022².

Requirements by role

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

Each district and charter school must give its attendance policy to educators and support staff at the beginning of each school year⁶.
The attendance policy must discourage teachers from scheduling major grading events, such as tests, examinations, presentations or project due dates, on religious holidays⁶.
A student who misses a grading event because of an excused absence to observe a religious holiday must be allowed to take the test on another day, take an alternate test, or be given some other way to recover credit⁶.
Under the state's 2021-2022 on-track attendance guidance, only full-day absences count toward the measure; local board policy sets what a full day is, and early dismissals and late arrivals are not counted⁸.

Counselors

Each attendance policy must tell families and students how they may access supports and resources for absences due to social, emotional and behavioral wellness⁶.
The state's 2019-2020 resource guide says schools should name staff, such as counselors, psychologists, school nurses or student advisors, to contact absent students on a routine basis, even after only two consecutive days out⁷.
The same guide advises working with the school's counselors and homeless and foster-care liaisons to identify the specific attendance barriers faced by children in poverty, foster youth and homeless youth, among others⁷.

Attendance team

Each district and charter school must give out and explain its attendance policy to every student at the beginning of each school year, and to each student who enrolls or re-enrolls during the year⁶.
Each district or charter school must post the policy on its website and tell each student's parent, guardian or relative caregiver in writing where to find it⁶.
A hard copy must go to a parent, guardian or relative caregiver on request or when the student's absences have exceeded ten (10) unexcused absences; it will include phone numbers for area supports and a school contact number⁶.
The state education department describes truancy under state law as an absence from school without a valid excuse for more than 3 school days during a school year⁷.

Principals & districts

Each school district and charter school must have an attendance policy that complies with the state's attendance law (14 Del.C. Ch. 27) and sets out its attendance rules for students K to 12⁶.
The policy must allow students in grades 6 through 12 one excused absence per school year for civic engagements, if the district or charter school receives a signed, written excuse from the student's parent, guardian or relative caregiver at least three (3) days before the absence⁶.
Students must be excused for the religious holidays listed in the regulation when the district or charter school receives a parent, guardian or relative caregiver's signed, written excuse; districts and charter schools may excuse other days for religious or cultural observances⁶.
Each district or charter school must keep an electronic copy of its current attendance policy on file with the state education department, and must send any revised policy within ninety (90) days of the revisions, whatever prompted them⁶.

Recent changes

What changed lately

In March 2026, the state education department presented its 2025-2028 strategic plan to lawmakers as part of its budget presentation; the plan includes a chronic absenteeism goal^5,3.
In July 2023, the department awarded a 10-year statewide contract for student information management, reporting and analytics⁴.
In May 2026, the department published a research report, written to support internal discussion, that sets out seven immediate priorities for reaching its 2028 target⁴.
The first of those priorities is to clarify statewide attendance definitions, coding and intervention expectations⁴.

Accountability

How the state holds schools to it

Delaware's statewide accountability system, the Delaware School Success Framework, includes on-track attendance for grades K-12 as a school quality/student success measure⁹.
The measure is reported as the percentage of students not chronically absent, the inverse of the percentage chronically absent⁸.
Under the state's 2021-2022 guidance, a student counts as chronically absent for this measure if absent for any reason, excused or unexcused, for 10% of a school's total membership between September 30 and May 31⁸.
These data are published every year on the Delaware Report Card⁹.
Schools with low performance on these measures may be identified for comprehensive support and improvement or targeted support and improvement⁹.
The 2025-2028 strategic plan's goal is to reduce chronic absenteeism from 15% to 13% by June 2028, as tracked in state attendance³.

Working on chronic absence in Delaware?

Agenteach helps counselors, teachers, and attendance teams follow up with students who are missing school, and keeps a record of every step.

Book time Become a pilot school

Sources

American Enterprise Institute (Nat Malkus). From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025, Table A3. State-Reported Chronic Absenteeism Data, by State, School Years 2017-25 (school years referred to by the spring year: 2017 = 2016-17, 2018 = 2017-18, 2019 = 2018-19, 2020 = 2019-20, 2021 = 2020-21, 2022 = 2021-22, 2023 = 2022-23, 2024 = 2023-24, 2025 = 2024-25; rates rounded to whole percent) (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)
Delaware Department of Education. New national report shows Delaware making recovery gains while students remain below pre-pandemic levels (press release reporting the national Education Scorecard's figures, which label each school year by its spring year) (opens in a new tab) (2026-05-14)
Delaware Department of Education. 2025-2028 Strategic Plan (opens in a new tab) (2026)
Delaware Department of Education. Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence, State Strategies, and Implications for Delaware (2026-2028), research report, May 2026 (opens in a new tab) (2026-05)
Delaware Public Media. Delaware Dept of Ed. sets testing, teacher retention, absenteeism benchmarks to hit by 2028 (March 5, 2026) (opens in a new tab) (2026-03-05)
Delaware Register of Regulations archive (State of Delaware), Delaware Administrative Code. 14 DE Admin. Code 615 School Attendance (as amended by 25 DE Reg. 699, 01/01/22) (opens in a new tab) (accessed 2026-10-13)
Delaware Department of Education. Chronic Absenteeism: A Resource Guide for Delaware Districts and Charter Schools 2019-2020 (August 29, 2019) (opens in a new tab) (2019-08-29)
Delaware Department of Education. 2021-2022 DSSF Guidance for On Track Attendance (Chronic Absenteeism) (opens in a new tab) (2021-09-07)
Delaware Department of Education. Measuring School Performance (state web page) (opens in a new tab) (updated 2026-09-14; accessed 2026-10-13)
American Enterprise Institute (Nat Malkus). From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025 (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)