Family circumstances pile up to worsen preschool attendance, and parent beliefs about attendance importance are related to absence rates¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2014 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Children in families with none of four risk circumstances missed roughly 5.6 percent of school, rising to 12.9 percent for those with three or more circumstances. → Ehrlich 2014 q2 i? Parents who believed regular preschool attendance is as important as in later grades had children with the lowest absence rates (7.5 percent), versus 13.2 percent for parents who did not believe preschool attendance mattered much. → Ehrlich 2014 (2)

Evidence¶

Ehrlich 2014¶

Ehrlich, S. B., Gwynne, J. A., Pareja, A. S., Allensworth, E. M., Moore, P., Jagesic, S., & Sorice, E. (2014). Preschool Attendance in Chicago Public Schools: Relationships with Learning Outcomes and Reasons for Absences. UChicago CCSR Research Report. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/preschool-attendance-chicago-public-schools-relationships-learning-outcomes-and-reasons

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Analysis relating accumulated family circumstances (single-parent family, poorer parent health, emergency room as primary medical care, unemployed or non-college-educated parent) to preschool absence rates; absence rises monotonically as circumstances accumulate.

"Children in families without any of the aforementioned circumstances missed roughly 5.6 percent of school; those with one obstacle missed 7.5 percent; those with two missed 9.0 percent; and those with three or more missed 12.9 percent."

Ehrlich 2014 (2)¶

Ehrlich, S. B., Gwynne, J. A., Pareja, A. S., Allensworth, E. M., Moore, P., Jagesic, S., & Sorice, E. (2014). Preschool Attendance in Chicago Public Schools: Relationships with Learning Outcomes and Reasons for Absences. UChicago CCSR Research Report. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/preschool-attendance-chicago-public-schools-relationships-learning-outcomes-and-reasons

q2 · i? · associational · r?

Survey-based analysis linking parent beliefs about the importance of preschool attendance to children's absence rates; children of parents who did not believe preschool attendance mattered much had the highest rates (13.2 percent).

"parents who believed that regular attendance in preschool is as important as in later grades had children with the lowest absence rates (7.5 percent); those whose parents said that attendance in preschool is important but would be more important in later years had higher absence rates (10.7 percent)"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• As family circumstances that strain attendance pile up, preschool attendance gets worse, with children facing no obstacles missing 5.6 percent of school and those facing three or more missing 12.9 percent — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Attendance in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten is important, and early-grade chronic absenteeism has identifiable risk factors — a broader claim this one bears on
• Health is the most commonly reported reason preschool children miss school, with more than half of all days missed due to sickness, and logistical obstacles accounting for another 18 percent — related
• Health is the most commonly reported reason preschool students miss school, with logistical obstacles second, and reasons differ by race/ethnicity — related
• When educators partnered with families on attendance, chronic absenteeism rates dropped 15% — related
• Evidence on preschool attendance by young children in foster care is largely unexamined, with one cited source reporting six percent of foster children under age six attend Head Start — related
• Punitive responses to absence do not improve attendance and can worsen it — related
• Chronic absenteeism is extremely common among preschool students and declines substantially when children enter kindergarten — related