What Makes Teachers Come to Class?

Teacher absenteeism costs school districts nationwide billions of dollars annually. It was a problem long before the COVID-19 pandemic, and chronic absences among educators negatively impact student achievement.

Attendance isn’t often considered as a metric to evaluate or compensate educators, however. A policy analysis from our organization, the Southern Regional Education Board, found no evidence of state laws providing incentives to reduce teacher absenteeism. Only one state—Rhode Island—measures teacher absenteeism as a factor in its school accountability system.

Some states have seen teacher absenteeism increase due to policy changes. West Virginia, for example, recently changed its rule governing teacher absences from allowing teachers to accumulate unpaid leave to a use-it-or-lose-it system, spurring an increase in the allotted days teachers use.

District and state policymakers can support better teacher attendance by improving working conditions, school culture, and the overall attractiveness of the profession. Let’s look at the research on the subject as well as some promising incentives for school leaders to watch.

What Does the Research Say?

Research indicates that teacher absences might be as disruptive to student achievement as student absences. Here are four findings:

1. Absenteeism affects student outcomes and teacher productivity. Teacher absenteeism can’t be ignored, according to a 2020 Brookings Institution report, because of its negative effects on student learning. Numerous sources present “a persuasive case that teachers impact a range of student outcomes beyond test scores, including student absences, suspension rates, noncognitive skills, and college attendance,” the report says. With increased student absences comes greater “risk of lower test performance, disengaging from courses, and dropping out of high school.”

New York City Public Schools used teacher attendance data to examine the correlation between absenteeism and labor productivity. Comparing similar teachers, the 2010 study estimated that replacing a regular teacher with a temporary substitute is “equivalent to replacing a teacher of average productivity with one at the 10th percentile for math instruction or 20th percentile for English instruction.”

2. Teacher absenteeism was declining before the COVID-19 pandemic. A National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) study found that attendance rates were similar across sample districts before the pandemic, regardless of whether the school board had created formal policies to discourage absenteeism. Examining specific factors that influence teacher absenteeism in 40 large, urban school districts, NCTQ found that teacher attendance improved between the 2012–2013 and 2016–2017 school years. Teachers missed an average of 9.4 days in 2017 compared to 11 days in 2013, pushing attendance rates from 94 percent to 95 percent. Chronic absenteeism among teachers declined from 16 percent to 10 percent, and tenured teachers were found to take more leave.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education estimated that 27 percent of teachers in the nation are chronically absent, missing more than 10 days per school year. According to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) teacher attendance data, that represented a 9 percent improvement from 2009, when 36 percent of teachers were chronically absent.

3. Teacher absenteeism concerns rose during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic produced increased absenteeism among teachers and added difficulty in finding substitutes, reports from NCES and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) said in 2022. IES also found that nearly three-quarters of public schools frequently relied on administrators, nonteaching staff, and teachers on their free periods to cover classes.

Teachers don’t take more time off than employees in other professions and are more likely to work when they should take sick leave, a 2023 Annenberg Institute study added. Absenteeism is most often due to sick leave, it noted, which was used more often during the pandemic years.

4. District policies matter, but so do school-based factors. Context matters. A 2023 NCTQ study of nearly 150 school districts found vast differences in teacher leave policies across locales and experience levels. And a 2012 brief from the Center for American Progress found that while district policies and management practices influence how and when teachers take leave, about one-third of the variation in absenteeism rates was attributable to factors between schools. Principal leadership and professional norms might explain some of the variations within districts, it said.

What Can Schools and Districts Do?

Building leaders and districts can improve teacher attendance using strategies such as:

• Establishing a culture of support and positivity;
• Incorporating teacher attendance into performance evaluations as a metric of professionalism;
• Encouraging excellent attendance by paying teachers for unused leave from the substitute teacher budget;
• Allowing teachers to carry sick days over to the next school year; and
• Providing feedback to state policy­makers on what strategies are working.

Here are programs that successfully address teacher attendance:

• The Muhlenberg County (Kentucky) School District focused on building a positive school culture and saw teacher attendance increase by 57 percent in two years.
• The Lancaster County (South Carolina) District allows teachers to cash out unused sick leave for funds to purchase classroom supplies. A Teacher Attendance Incentive Program also allows teachers to receive $50 for each unused personal day.
• The Aldine (Texas) Independent School District increases 401(a) retirement contributions for employees with perfect or excellent attendance (up to two days missed per school year). Excellent attendance earns employees an extra retirement contribution equivalent to 0.5 percent of annual gross pay. Perfect attendance earns employees an extra contribution equivalent to 1.5 percent of annual gross pay.
• The Ector County (Texas) Independent School District offers stipends for every 30 days of perfect attendance. A teacher who doesn’t miss any school days during an academic year can earn up to $2,550.

District and State Support

If teacher absenteeism is a concern, research suggests three actions state policymakers might pursue:

1. Collect data on absenteeism. Data can help pinpoint individual schools and areas with higher and lower absentee rates. Leaders can then disaggregate data by teacher age, years of experience, and school characteristics such as size, location, and student population. Using a case-study approach, this can identify district policies or management decisions that correlate to improved teacher attendance. School, district, and state leaders can then use the data to intervene in cases of chronic absenteeism, as well as craft policies based on the impact evidenced by various strategies.

2. Test and refine strategies. With support from state policymakers, districts and principals can pilot innovative programs designed to encourage improved attendance. Programs might provide financial incentives, but they should also address any school-based norms associated with increased absenteeism. At the end of a test period, a state-level or third-party evaluator should assess the strategies’ effectiveness. Analysis can contribute to research on school-based factors that influence absenteeism and inform a large-scale rollout.

3. Incorporate what works into policy. School leadership practices, building culture, district personnel policies, and existing incentives already influence levels of teacher attendance. State and district policy can benefit from a big-picture view of teacher absenteeism and how it relates to challenges such as teacher attrition and turnover. If state and local policymakers understand the reasons teachers leave the profession altogether, they might also understand how to reduce absenteeism.

Collecting teacher attendance data, analyzing trends, and supporting local pilot programs builds an awareness of what is working for individual teachers, schools, and districts—and can help policymakers limit strategies that aren’t effective.

Two Strategies

SREB has studied the issues of teacher turnover and the declining number of young people interested in teaching careers. Based on our research and multiple other studies, the primary driver of teacher turnover is a lack of strong building leadership. The primary reason for declining interest in the profession is that younger generations view teaching as less financially secure, less supportive and flexible, and less accessible to advancement than other professions.

Two strategies stand out as the most promising to reduce teacher absenteeism and turnover:

Offer support that lowers stress levels and improves morale among teachers. At the building and district levels, this kind of support includes providing quality mentors, offering team teaching approaches and co-teaching opportunities, and building the ranks of teacher interns, residents, and assistants who can offer temporary aid.

Offer financial incentives. Multiple studies have found that higher pay correlates with higher teacher attendance. While many districts have experimented with bonuses and stipends successfully, reports suggest that offering higher base pay is more effective in lowering teacher absenteeism.

Teacher absenteeism can be reduced. But it demands policies at the building, district, and state levels that welcome teachers to the profession every day with a positive culture and appropriate compensation.

Megan Boren is a project manager with the Southern Regional Education Board.