Chronic absence from school is an epidemic in Baltimore City. Students who miss school are losing out on critical academic and social learning opportunities. And as they fall behind, these students can become permanently disengaged from school. This OSI paper demonstrates how schools perpetuate a cycle of disengagement and absenteeism with indifferent or punitive responses to chronic absence.

"Missing School" reviews local, state, and national data on habitual truancy and chronic absence, including who is absent, why students are absent, and what the outcomes of habitual truancy and chronic absence are. It also outlines the major policies impacting school attendance, in particular, the federal No Child Left Behind Act.