States / Nebraska

Chronic absence in Nebraska

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

School year 2024-25

21%

of students were chronically absent¹

Chronically absent means absent for 10% or more of their days in membership at a school or district.³

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)²

Five-year trend

Nebraska, year by year

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

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

Where things stand

The numbers

In 2024-25, 21% of Nebraska students were chronically absent, according to AEI's table of state-reported data, which labels that year 2025¹.
The rate was 15% in 2018-19, before the pandemic. It peaked at 24% in 2021-22, then eased to 22% in 2022-23 and 2023-24¹.
The state counts a student in kindergarten through grade 12 as chronically absent when the student is absent for 10% or more of their days in membership at a school or district³.
The state education department says chronic absence disproportionately affects students with disabilities, students of color and economically disadvantaged students, and has a significant impact on students in kindergarten and high school⁷.
Between 2021-22 and 2024-25, chronic absenteeism declined in 66 of Nebraska's 93 counties (70%), the state education department reported⁶.
Nebraska is slightly below the national picture: across reporting states, 22.6% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25, which AEI labels 2025².

Requirements by role

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

Each teacher shall record the number of days each pupil was present, the number of days absent and the cause of absence⁹.
Each teacher shall send the superintendent at once the name of any child who enters or withdraws after the third day school is in session, report all absences and their cause at the end of each week, and send an end-of-period report showing each enrolled child's name, age and address, each child's half days absent, the number enrolled and attending on the last day, and average daily attendance. All these reports shall be as prescribed by the Commissioner of Education¹⁰.
Those teacher reporting duties do not apply to individual teachers in schools employing more than one teacher. There, they apply to the head teacher, superintendent or administrator, who shall obtain the required information from the teachers under their supervision or control¹⁰.
Any superintendent, principal, teacher or school board member who knows of a violation of the state's compulsory attendance requirement shall report it within three days to the school's attendance officer, who shall immediately investigate¹¹.
Absences shall be excused by a parent, guardian or educational decision maker (a person designated or ordered by a court to make educational decisions for the child) for physical or mental illness and as documented by a credentialed health professional, provided the documentation supports the absence. For chronic illness, the documentation shall be reviewed each semester^11,13.

Counselors

When the law's attendance services are triggered, they include one or more meetings among, at a minimum, a school attendance officer, a school social worker, or a school administrator or designee; the person in charge of the child; the child's educational decision maker if that is someone else; and the child, when appropriate, to address the barriers to attendance¹¹.
The meetings shall produce a collaborative plan to reduce the barriers identified and improve regular attendance¹¹.
The plan shall include an educational evaluation, if the person responsible for the child's educational decisions agrees, to find whether intellectual, academic, physical or social-emotional barriers contribute to the absences¹¹.
The plan shall also consider, among other things, the child's physical, mental or behavioral health; educational counseling; referral to community agencies for economic services; family or individual counseling; help working with other community services; and referral to restorative justice practices or services¹¹.

Attendance team

School boards shall appoint one or more attendance officers, vested with police powers, to enforce the compulsory attendance law in their districts. The school board sets their pay, which comes from the district's general school fund¹².
The attendance officer shall immediately investigate a reported violation, and shall also immediately investigate when the officer believes there is a violation from personal knowledge or from a report or complaint by any resident of the district¹¹.
Schools shall provide attendance services upon twenty days of absence. They include, but are not limited to, written communication by school officials with the person in charge of the child and the barrier-reduction meetings described for counselors¹¹.
The school may report to the county attorney of the county in which the person resides once it has documented its efforts, the collaborative plan has not succeeded, and the child has accrued twenty days or more of unexcused absences during the school year. The school shall notify the family in writing before referring¹¹.
Illness that makes attendance impossible or impracticable shall not be the basis for a county attorney referral. If the school fails to document its required efforts, that is a defense to prosecution under the compulsory attendance law and to adjudication under the juvenile code provisions the law cites, based on those absences. A county attorney may still be involved at any stage¹¹.

Principals & districts

Every school board shall have a written attendance policy, developed and reviewed each year with the county attorney of the county where the district's principal office is located. It shall say how the district will handle excessive absences due to illness, and state the circumstances and number of absences, or hourly equivalent, at which the school will provide its services to address barriers to attendance¹¹.
On the third day school is in session each year, each superintendent, and each administrator of a private, denominational or parochial school, shall compile a list of enrolled pupils with their age, grade and address⁹.
Each superintendent shall compare that list with the district's last census report, list the resident children under the superintendent's jurisdiction who are not attending school as the compulsory attendance law requires, and send that list to the officer or officers who enforce the law¹⁶.
On the written request of a person in charge of a child who is at least sixteen but less than eighteen years of age, the superintendent or designee shall hold an exit interview if the child is enrolled in a district school, or lives in the district and attends a private, denominational or parochial school¹⁷.
At that interview, the requester shall present evidence that they are in charge of the child and that the child would be withdrawing because of financial hardship requiring the child to work to support the family or the child's dependents, or because of an illness that makes attendance impossible or impracticable. The superintendent or designee shall identify all known alternative educational opportunities in the district, including vocational courses of study, and explain how withdrawing is likely to reduce future earnings and raise the likelihood of unemployment¹⁷.

Recent changes

What changed lately

LB937, approved by the Governor on April 16, 2026, changed provisions on school absences. The amended attendance section took effect July 18, 2026^14,11.
Before LB937, a school could refer a child to the county attorney, after documented efforts and an unsuccessful collaborative plan, when the child had been absent more than twenty days per school year. Now the child must have accrued twenty days or more of unexcused absences during the school year^14,15,11.
LB937 also added the rule that absences shall be excused for physical or mental illness, by a parent, guardian or court-designated educational decision maker, and as documented by a credentialed health professional, with chronic-illness documentation reviewed each semester^11,13,15,14.
In December 2025, the State Board of Education unanimously approved the education department's 2026-2030 strategic plan, which sets a goal to reduce chronic absenteeism by 50%⁵.
In its November 26, 2025 accountability release, the department said this was the final year of the current school classification system, with changes coming in 2026 to improve transparency and be more meaningful for continuous improvement⁴.

Accountability

How the state holds schools to it

Chronic absenteeism is one of two School Quality and Student Success indicators Nebraska uses for all schools across all grade bands in its federal accountability plan; the other is science achievement³.
The indicator covers kindergarten through grade 12. The rate is the number of chronically absent students divided by all eligible students; a student in membership for fewer than 10 days at a school or district is not eligible³.
The plan resets the baseline for each school and every student group using the 2021-22 school year. With a long-term goal of cutting chronic absenteeism 50% over 10 years, the current-year target is a 5% improvement on the baseline, set separately for each school and student group³.
In the plan's staged method for differentiating schools, chronic absenteeism and science sit in the third and final stage, which carries the least weight³.
The state's AQuESTT system classifies schools and districts each year as Excellent, Great, Good or Needs Support to Improve. In the November 26, 2025 release, 81 school classifications were positively impacted by a reduction in chronic absenteeism⁴.
Exit criteria for schools in federal support designations may include reducing chronic absenteeism⁴.
Nebraska's attendance playbook says the state has joined 17 other states in the 50% Challenge, an effort led by Attendance Works, the American Enterprise Institute and Education Trust⁸.

What’s working

Efforts with results

State data show large drops in some counties between 2021-22 and 2024-25: Cheyenne County fell from 29% to 9%, and Box Butte County from 37% to 18%⁶.
At the Alliance Public Schools high school, chronic absenteeism fell from 59% three years earlier to 25% in the last school year, per the state education department, which describes the school's approach: every student had at least one trusted adult who met with them weekly in small groups, alongside positive attendance messages⁶.

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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 (columns 2017 to 2025 by spring year; the last value is 2025 = the 2024-25 school year; rates rounded to whole percent) (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)
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)
Nebraska Department of Education. Nebraska Consolidated State Plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act (final signed version posted 2025-05), School Quality and Student Success indicator: Chronic Absenteeism (opens in a new tab) (signed version posted 2025-05; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Department of Education. Significant Gains in Science Highlight Statewide Assessment and Accountability Results (news release) (opens in a new tab) (2025-11-26)
Nebraska Department of Education. NDE Announces Good Life, Great Schools, Excellent Education Strategic Plan (news release) (opens in a new tab) (2025-12-12)
Nebraska Department of Education. Nebraska Department of Education Highlights Communities Improving Attendance (news release) (opens in a new tab) (2025-10-23)
Nebraska Department of Education. Chronic Absenteeism (Office of Coordinated Student Support Services web page) (opens in a new tab) (accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Department of Education. Every Day Counts! Nebraska's Attendance Playbook (PDF) (opens in a new tab) (posted 2026-01; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-205, Compulsory attendance; records required (opens in a new tab) (current text; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-207, Compulsory attendance; entry or withdrawal of student; teachers' attendance reports (opens in a new tab) (current text; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-209, Compulsory attendance; nonattendance; school district; duties; collaborative plan; referral to county attorney; notice (opens in a new tab) (current text, effective July 18, 2026; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-208, Compulsory attendance; attendance officers; powers and duties; compensation (opens in a new tab) (current text; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-530, Involvement of parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers; term, defined (opens in a new tab) (current text; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature. LB937 (2026), slip law (PDF) (opens in a new tab) (2026-04-16)
Nebraska Legislature. LB1329 (2024), slip law (PDF), section 15 amending 79-209, subsection (3) as then enacted (opens in a new tab) (2024-04-16)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-206, Compulsory attendance; nonattendance lists; transmission to enforcement officers (opens in a new tab) (current text; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-202, Compulsory attendance; withdrawal of child from school; exit interview (opens in a new tab) (current text; accessed 2026-10-13)
Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Revised Statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-201, Compulsory education; attendance required (opens in a new tab) (current text; accessed 2026-10-13)