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States / Indiana

Chronic absence in Indiana

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

School year 2024-25

16.7%

of students were chronically absent1

Chronically absent means missed at least 10% of school days, excused and unexcused.2

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)5

Five-year trend

Indiana, year by year

0%10%20%30%21.1%2021-2219.2%2022-2317.8%2023-2416.7%2024-25U.S. rate 22.6% (2024-25)
Indiana chronic absence by school year
School yearChronically absent
2021-2221.1%
2022-2319.2%
2023-2417.8%
2024-2516.7%

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

Where things stand

The numbers

  • In 2024-25, 16.7% of Indiana students were chronically absent, an improvement of 1.1 percentage points from the year before. That is nearly 200,000 students1,3.
  • The rate has improved for three consecutive years, down from 21.1% in 2021-22, but it is still above the pre-pandemic level of 10.6%1,3.
  • Rates are highest in high school: 31.6% of seniors were chronically absent, compared with 23.1% of juniors and 20.6% of sophomores3.
  • The number of schools with fewer than 10% of students chronically absent grew from 686 in 2024 to 797 in 2025, yet 78 schools had more than 50% of students chronically absent4.
  • Groups hit hardest after the pandemic are improving faster than the state overall: Black students improved 1.6 percentage points, Hispanic students 1.2 and students receiving free or reduced-price meals 1.71.
  • Nationally, 22.6% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25, above Indiana's 16.7% that year5,1.

Requirements by role

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

  • Every public and nonpublic school must keep an accurate daily attendance record for each student subject to compulsory attendance8.
  • In a public school, every teacher must answer fully all lawful inquiries from an attendance officer, a school official or other listed officials8.
  • When a student becomes an absent student, a teacher of the student must be among those at the school's attendance conference, along with a school representative and the parent. A representative chosen by the parent also attends if the parent asks and names that person at least forty-eight (48) hours before. The school holds the conference even if the parent or the representative cannot attend6,7.

Counselors

  • The attendance plan may include wraparound services for the student, a referral to counseling, mentoring or other services, and whether the parent is expected to attend those services with the student6.
  • A school must offer additional counseling or services to an absent student if it determines the absences are related to the student's pregnancy, foster care, homelessness, or a severe or life threatening illness or related treatment6.

Attendance team

  • An absent student is a K-12 student absent from school five (5) days within a ten (10) week period where those absences were neither excused nor in conformity with a note on file from the student's doctor, therapist or other professional requesting that frequent absences be excused under the student's IEP, service plan, choice scholarship education plan or Section 504 plan9.
  • The school must immediately send the parent written notice that the student is an absent student, that the parent is responsible for monitoring attendance and ensuring the student attends, that the school will start truancy prevention measures, and that the parent is required to attend an attendance conference6.
  • The notice must also say that, if the student meets the requirements of a habitual truant, the student must be reported to a juvenile court intake officer or the department of child services, the juvenile court may find the student is committing a delinquent act, and the parent may be subject to prosecution6.
  • The school must hold the attendance conference not more than ten (10) instructional days after the fifth absence, even if the parent cannot attend, and must make all reasonable efforts to schedule it at a time that works for the parent. If the plan states how long it is in effect, that period may not exceed forty-five (45) instructional days7,6.
  • Attendance officers must visit the homes of absent children, serve written notice on any parent whose child is out of school illegally, carry out the truancy prevention measures, and meet at least one (1) time each year with the department of child services and the juvenile court intake officer12.

Principals & districts

  • Each school board, or charter school organizer, must adopt a truancy prevention policy for absent students that sets out the notice, conference and plan steps above17,6.
  • Each school board must adopt a policy setting the conditions for excused and unexcused absences and categorizing excused absences, and must have a policy on habitually truant students' participation in extracurricular and co-curricular activities. The policy must include the excused-absence grounds the law requires13. For example, school boards and nonpublic school system leaders must excuse a student who takes part in a scheduled FFA or 4-H competition, exhibition or event, for educational purposes shown in writing by the parent and approved in writing by the principal. This is capped at six (6) instructional days in a school year, the student must be in good academic standing as the school determines, and the student may not be recorded absent or penalized20.
  • A habitual truant is a student absent ten (10) days or more in a school year without being excused or without a parental request filed with the school. The superintendent or an attendance officer must report a habitually truant child to a juvenile court intake officer or the department of child services11,10.
  • The superintendent, attendance officers and the state attendance official, among others, must enforce the attendance law, and that duty includes reporting a habitual truant to the prosecuting attorney14.
  • Before proceedings against a parent, the superintendent or a designee must serve the parent personal notice of the violation. If the violation does not end within one (1) school day after the notice, or another violation occurs in that period, no further notice is needed15.

Recent changes

What changed lately

  • Senate Enrolled Act 282 took effect July 1, 2024. News coverage said it required districts to meet with parents about absences and offer services, and to refer habitually truant elementary students to the county prosecutor18.
  • Senate Enrolled Act 482, passed in 2025, took effect July 1 to set attendance definitions in law and standardize statewide reporting. Schools now report the type of each excused absence, but local boards still decide what counts as excused or unexcused4,3.
  • Under current law, a prosecuting attorney may meet with the child, parent and school officials and develop an intervention plan before filing a truancy affidavit, but is not required to. The prosecutor must notify each parent when an affidavit is filed14,3.
  • News coverage in 2025 reported that K-8 students could not be expelled solely for being chronically absent or habitually truant until July 1, 20263.

Accountability

How the state holds schools to it

  • Indiana's school performance dashboard, Indiana GPS, reports student attendance as the percentage of students with at least a 94% attendance rate2.
  • The state's Attendance Insights Dashboard publicly shows attendance and chronic absenteeism data over time by grade, school and district2.
  • State law requires the education department to set categories for excused absences, collect each year from every district and charter school the number of absences in each category, and post a report broken down by student group16.
  • The department must make reducing absenteeism a policy priority and help districts and schools find causes and develop chronic absence reduction plans. Subject to its duty under section 12.4 to set the excused-absence categories and collect and report the data described above, it may not mandate a particular policy within a district's or school's chronic absence reduction plan19,16.

Working on chronic absence in Indiana?

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Sources

Sources

  1. Indiana Department of Education. Chronic Absenteeism Improves in Indiana for Third Consecutive Year (press release, September 5) (opens in a new tab) (2025-09-05)
  2. Indiana Department of Education. 2024-2025 Chronic Absenteeism Data (IDOE presentation to the State Board of Education, September 10, 2025) (opens in a new tab) (2025-09-10)
  3. Indiana Capital Chronicle, reporting state data. Chronic absenteeism continues to improve in Indiana schools, new state data shows (September 11, 2025) (opens in a new tab) (2025-09-11)
  4. Indiana Department of Education. Superintendent message, September 5, 2025 (Legislative Updates: Clarification on SEA 482) (opens in a new tab) (2025-09-05)
  5. 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)
  6. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2.5-4 (truancy prevention policy) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  7. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2.5-5 (attendance conference timing) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  8. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2-20 (daily attendance record) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  9. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2.5-1 ("absent student") (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  10. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2-25 (report of habitual truant) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  11. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-18-2-6.5 ("habitual truant") (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  12. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2-39 (attendance officer duties) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  13. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2-14 (absence policies) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  14. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2-26 (duty to enforce; prosecutor intervention) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  15. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2-27 (parent's duty; personal notice) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  16. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-19-3-12.4 (excused absence categories; annual report) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  17. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2.5-2 ("governing authority") (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  18. Chalkbeat Indiana. New Indiana law designed to reduce chronic absenteeism could lead to more parent prosecutions (opens in a new tab) (2024-08-21)
  19. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-19-3-12.2 (absenteeism reduction a policy priority) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)
  20. Indiana Code via FindLaw (current as of January 1, 2026). Indiana Code 20-33-2-17.8 (FFA and 4-H excused absences) (opens in a new tab) (2026-01-01)