Toward Inclusive Attendance: Shifting the Conversation

In recent years, conversations about school attendance have shifted from enforcement-focused truancy policy to a model around chronic absenteeism that uncovers and addresses individual root causes.

The main goal being: reducing barriers to attendance and improving learning outcomes.

We share that goal.

Attendance matters. Learning matters.

Since enforcement under the Attendance for Success Act began in earnest a few years ago, many New Mexico families, educators, and students are discovering a difficult reality: some students experience unavoidable absences related to disability, chronic illness, or medical necessity.

Our attendance systems are not always clearly designed to preserve learning continuity, school belonging, and educational connection during those absences.

Most people assume this issue was already addressed.

We did too. But it isn't, yet.

New Mexico’s Attendance for Success framework was created with positive intentions: identifying barriers to attendance early and connecting students with support before disengagement deepens. Disability protections and educational access supports through Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and accommodations through Section 504 plans were also created to ensure students with disabilities can continue accessing learning appropriately.

These systems share important goals and are not inherently oppositional to one another.

But in practice, many families and educators are finding that the integration between them remains unclear when students experience unavoidable absences.

This conversation matters because chronic absenteeism is already a very real and significant educational challenge in New Mexico. State data shows chronic absenteeism increased dramatically following the pandemic, and students with disabilities continue to experience disproportionately high rates of chronic absence within statewide attendance data.

Importantly, New Mexico defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% or more of school days “for any reason.” That means students with unavoidable medical and disability-related absences are already part of this conversation.

Yet under the current system, unavoidable absences are considered equivalent in attendance metrics rather than through the broader lens of educational continuity and learner access.

Medically complex students remain learners.

Many continue engaging academically during periods of absence, often following plans developed between families and schools to address their individual circumstances. This is a feature of the Attendance for Success Act which has already been done in some cases.

Many deeply value school, relationships, routines, and educational connection. Many families and educators work extraordinarily hard to preserve continuity despite fragmented systems and unclear guidance.

The question is not whether attendance matters.

The question is how educational systems should respond when absences are unavoidable.

In earlier phases of this conversation, many families recounted moments of fear, confusion, and escalation they were experiencing while trying to navigate systems that did not appear clearly designed to account for medically necessary absences.

Calls to action here have centered on urgent harms because families were trying to make an invisible issue visible. Those experiences remain real and important.

But as more families, educators, and policymakers engage with this issue, the conversation is also evolving toward a broader question:

How can educational systems better preserve continuity, belonging, and learner connection for students whose attendance patterns do not fit standard assumptions?

What happens when:

• a student is physically absent but still cognitively engaged?

• continuity of learning matters as much as attendance tracking?

• remote learning is inaccessible because of disability-related barriers?

• re-entry after absence becomes overwhelming?

• educators are left improvising without clear statewide guidance?

• students begin to lose belonging, connection, or identity as learners because attendance systems do not differentiate unavoidable absence well?

These are not hypothetical questions for many New Mexico families. They are daily realities.

As New Mexico continues working to make strides in reducing absenteeism statewide, there is an opportunity to better understand the different causes of chronic absence within the data — including medically necessary and disability-related absences that may require different continuity-centered approaches.

This conversation is evolving beyond “excused absences” alone. It is increasingly about educational continuity, inclusive systems design, and preserving connection to learning for students whose attendance patterns do not fit standard assumptions.

We believe New Mexico has an opportunity to lead thoughtfully in this space.

Toward systems that:

• recognize different causes of absence differently,

• preserve learner identity and belonging,

• support continuity of learning during unavoidable absences,

• and better integrate attendance frameworks with disability-related educational protections.

This is not about lowering expectations for students.

It is about ensuring students with unavoidable absences are not unintentionally disconnected from learning, belonging, and opportunity because existing systems were not clearly designed to work together.

Families across New Mexico have spent years improvising survival amid a fragmented system. But we believe a more inclusive and continuity-centered approach is possible.

Toward Inclusive Attendance in New Mexico means continuing to ask:

• What if absence did not mean disconnection?

• What if continuity mattered as much as attendance?

• What if medically complex students remained connected to learning and belonging during periods of unavoidable absence?

• And what if our systems were designed to support that reality more clearly and consistently?