Miseducation reporters Bernie Carmona, Kelsi Bowen, and Katelyn Melville spent three months reporting on chronic absenteeism in New York City public schools. Their reporting led them to Pan American International High School in Elmhurst, Queens. Photos by Mira Gordon

By Bernie Carmona, Katelyn Melville and Kelsi Bowen

In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the country have missed school far more regularly than before it. In New York City, the chronic absenteeism rate (percentage of students who miss at least 10% of total school days) hovered around 25% in the years leading up to the pandemic. When students returned to classrooms in the 2021-2022 school year, the rate jumped to 40%. It remains stubbornly high.

We wanted to understand why and what schools can do to reverse the trend.

While analyzing attendance rates and student demographics of nearly 500 New York City public high schools, we noticed an outlier in the data. Pan American International High School, which serves recent arrivals to the country who often face economic hardship and housing instability, reported a chronic absenteeism rate of just 14.6% in the 2022-2023 school year — lower than some of the city’s most sought-after screened and specialized high schools.

In this episode, follow us on our trip to Pan American, where we uncover the stories behind the numbers and hear directly from three students who each made a big turnaround in their attendance. What made the difference? What can other schools learn from Pan American’s approach? And… have adults been talking about this issue all wrong?

Tune in to find out.

Miseducation is The Bell’s flagship podcast and internship program, which gives New York City public high school students the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system. This episode was made possible with support from College Board.

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