@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp18652,
            	author={Yaow, Yu Hung and Gershenson, Seth and Blazar, David and Hutt, Ethan},
            	title={The Causal Effect of Student Absences Post Pandemic: Evidence from Three School Systems},
            	year={2026},
	month={May},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={18652},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18652},
	abstract={Researchers, educators, and policymakers have long worried about the consequences of student absences for educational achievement and attainment—concerns that have grown with the significant rise in absenteeism during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. Using administrative data from Maryland, North Carolina, and a large urban school district, we find that the impact of absences on test scores was modestly (about 5 to 20%) smaller in 2022-23 than in 2018-19 but still practically and statistically significant. Consistent with prior research, these harmful effects of absences are approximately linear and exhibit little heterogeneity across race and gender pre-Covid. In Maryland, the impact of tenth-grade absences on high-school graduation and 2-year college enrollment was much (about 40%) smaller after the pandemic than before, but the impact of absences on any (2- or 4-year) college enrollment increased slightly. Post-Covid reductions in the harmful effects were larger for white students on test scores and larger for Black students on graduation.},
	keywords={chronic absence;attendance;learning loss},
            }