Without a car or a nearby bus stop, Jessica struggled to get to school. As a high school freshman, she loved to play soccer, but without reliable transportation, getting to practices and games became difficult and her motivation faded — along with her in-class attendance.
“Miss one class, then miss another, and soon you don’t want to go back because you’ve already missed last week’s work,” said Jessica, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym for this story. “You start thinking, ‘Why would I go back if I can’t even catch up?’”
In her sophomore year, Jessica continued to have a hard time attending classes. Between a difficult commute and lack of drive, she accumulated enough absences that she had to attend truancy court. Shortly after, in June 2023, she decided to leave high school.
“The worst part is that I’ve always loved school, it just wasn’t the same. It stopped being a happy place for me,” Jessica said. “Why would a teen who doesn’t have a person at home to tell them or take them to school go when they don’t feel wanted there? I have way too many actual things going on in my life to like, school is the last thing I need to care about right now”
A new bipartisan bill, Senate Bill 5007, is moving through Olympia to support students who are chronically absent and at risk of not graduating from high school. Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year, has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, which were already high in many states. The bill, sponsored by Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, is being considered by his colleagues in the Senate. The bill made it through the Feb. 21 committee cutoff and also had a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Monday Feb. 24, so will make it through by the Feb. 28 cutoff. It needs to pass the Senate by the March 12 house-of-origin cutoff to still have a chance to become law.
In Washington, chronic absenteeism decreased from 30% in the 2022-23 school year to 27.3% in 2023-24. While this marks a slight improvement, Washington is the state with the eighth highest rate in the country, and absenteeism remains almost twice as high as it was before the pandemic, when the rate was 15.1%.
“The key is identifying chronic absenteeism early — before a student falls a year behind. Waiting too long makes it much harder to catch up,” Braun said. “Simply put, early intervention minimizes harm and increases the chances of success.”
The bill requires each Educational Service District (ESD) to provide training and support for school staff to address chronic absences and truancy. Each ESD will work with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to train school staff on how to spot and support students who are chronically absent. This includes creating systems to identify at-risk students early and connect them with the help they need to stay engaged in learning. These requirements are dependent on sufficient funding as determined by OSPI, which is difficult to estimate because of variances across districts.
“We want to help students stay on track when they’re absent by ensuring they can access missed content,” said Krissy Johnson, assistant director of attendance and engagement for OSPI. “Schools are encouraged to improve their absence procedures, so students and families inform them ahead of time. This allows students to connect with teachers and create a plan to stay up on their work, if possible.”
SB 5007 focuses on both unexcused and excused absences because chronic absenteeism — regardless of the reason — can negatively impact a student’s education.
“We’ve made great progress moving away from a punitive truancy model, but there’s still a mind-set that excused absences are less concerning,” Johnson said. “We’re not saying excused absences aren’t valid — we just need to raise awareness about the impact of missed school and be intentional about when students are absent while maintaining open communication with schools. It’s a fine balance to navigate.”
SB 5007 would cost approximately $20.4 million per biennium, with $10.85 million allocated to the OSPI and $9.6 million to local school districts. The funds would be used to support school-based absenteeism teams, enhance data systems for tracking attendance and provide grants to community-based organizations and tribes to address chronic absenteeism. Spending would focus on family engagement, removing barriers to attendance (such as transportation and basic needs), connecting students to behavioral and health services and offering incentives to improve attendance.
The bill also expands support for chronically absent students through more funding for the Building Bridges Program and the Open Doors Youth Reengagement system.
The Building Bridges Program is a local partnership of schools, families and communities that focuses on using local data to identify students at risk of dropping out. It provides reentry activities and alternative educational programs, as well as staff to coordinate community support and coaches or mentors who can be matched with students.
Open Doors Youth Reengagement helps students ages 16-21 who have dropped out or are at risk of not graduating. It offers academic instruction, counseling and support to remove barriers to education. Some programs also allow students to take college courses for a degree or certification.
In 2024, about a year after dropping out, Jessica was referred to Open Doors in Mason County, where her classes meet twice a week with flexible Zoom options. Jessica and her teachers say adjusting was a little challenging for her the first couple months, but after that, she started believing in the program. She says the lighter class load has also made transportation less of an issue for her.
“It’s honestly helped me get my life on track, or at least started me on the right path,” Jessica said. “Open Doors have smaller class sizes, which makes it really supportive. The staff genuinely cares about each student and their situation, which makes a big difference for me.”
Mason Bryant, a teacher at Open Doors in Mason County, has worked with Jessica since she arrived at the school.
“A lot of it is just about being persistent reminding the kids that we care about them,” Bryant said. “At first, I was thinking about early intervention as something that starts in middle school, but really, our program is the intervention. We step in when students are struggling, and over time, you see the change. A lot of my kids, who started out as little troublemakers, are learning to care about their future in a way they didn’t before.”
For students like Jessica, Open Doors offered a new opportunity to reconnect with school. Through the program, she now has the chance to graduate on time.
“I never thought I would go to college, I had completely let go of that dream, not even considering it anymore,” Jessica said. “Now I have the opportunity to attend for four years and pursue whatever I want.”
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