Creating Welcoming Schools: The Role of Positive Climates in Reducing Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism has risen significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, and while attempts to redress absenteeism can target drivers at multiple ecological levels, this study focuses on a within-school factor: student perceptions of school climate. Using statewide data from middle and high school students in Georgia, we examine how aggregated student-reported climate measures relate to absenteeism. We find that students’ perceptions of climate significantly predict school-level absenteeism rates, with the relationship most pronounced for Black and White students. The association between worsening climate perceptions and absenteeism is stronger than the association for improving ones, and connectedness and safety are the climate elements most related to absenteeism. Our results position school climate as a within-school lever that stakeholders can target to combat absenteeism.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  The American Educational Research Journal

• Publication date

  2026-02-21

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3102/00028312261417687
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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