While chronic absenteeism remains a persistent problem in schools across the country following the COVID-19 pandemic, Bensalem High School continues to report rates well above the 21% state average.
Despite a downward trend from the peak of the pandemic, chronic absence rates at Bensalem High School remain at about 36%. Data from the high school shows that more than 1 in 3 students were chronically absent in the 2025-26 school year.
Not just a post-pandemic issue
Chronic absenteeism in Pennsylvania is defined as missing 10% of enrolled days at a given school. Any days missed — including excused absences and suspensions — count towards this figure.
Studies have demonstrated that higher rates of chronic absenteeism lowers a student’s academic achievements and raises their dropout rate. Recently, evidence points toward a link between chronic absenteeism and school recovery post-COVID-19.
Pennsylvania followed a nationwide trend of chronic absenteeism, which spiked during the pandemic and reached 26% statewide in 2022.
In the years following school closures these levels have dropped, but still remains six percentage points higher than the 15% pre-pandemic rate of chronic absences.
Statewide, the pandemic worsened an underlying issue of chronic absenteeism in schools. For Bensalem High School, this issue was already prevalent before the coronavirus forced schools to shut their doors.
Leading up to the pandemic — and during the 2018-19 school year — the rate of chronically absent students at Bensalem High School was already 34%, compared to the statewide 15% average for the same year.
These rates increased throughout COVID closures at the school, reaching a high of 44% in the 2021-22 school year and compounding Bensalem’s preexisting issue.
In the years following this spike the rate has dropped eight percentage points, settling at roughly 36% for the 2025-26 school year.
Inside Bensalem’s absentee data
During the 2025-26 school year at Bensalem High School, 773 of the 2,142 students missed at least 18 days of class.
Seven students missed 100 or more days or more than half of Bensalem’s 180-day school year.
Bensalem Township School District did not respond to multiple requests from the Bucks County Beacon for comment on the school’s chronic absenteeism rate.
Along with an abnormally high rate of chronic absenteeism, a large portion of the high school’s population is classified as habitually truant.
In Pennsylvania, a student becomes habitually truant once they accumulate six or more unexcused absences.
READ: Bensalem School District Urges Residents to ‘Keep Our Schools Strong’ with New Reporting Program
After passing a three unexcused absence threshold at Bensalem, school policy is to send a First Notice letter home. If the student reaches six unexcused absences, the school sends an invitation for a Student Attendance Improvement Plan meeting.
Under state law, the Student Attendance Improvement Conferences discussions are not a legal requirement for children or guardians to attend. Pennsylvania Department of Education advises that schools “should make every attempt to conduct the SAIC with the person in parental relationship present.”
The rate of habitual truancy in the school — from the 2025-26 school year — sits at nearly 40%, with 842 students reaching the threshold requiring Bensalem to offer an SAIP meeting.
The national picture
There is not one clear cause for the growth of this educational phenomenon, said Michael Gottfried, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading expert and researcher in chronic student absenteeism.
Living in a post-pandemic world, he explained that kids are staying home more frequently for health reasons. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, students would often go to school, regardless of whether they were sick or not, according to Gottfried.
On the first day of the January 2020 semester, Gottfried recounted that he “definitely” taught the first day of classes with a 102 degree fever.
“It’s the first day, I have to handle the syllabus, of course I’m going to go,” Gottfried said. “Now I would never even consider doing something like that — that wouldn’t even cross my mind.”
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He added that the pandemic changed attitudes and stigmas towards mental health. If a student is struggling, the educational system is now more understanding of their situation and more likely to tell them to take time to recuperate, according to Gottfried.
Gottfried also reasoned the overall rise in chronic absenteeism is partially due to the fact that overall children’s perceptions of school have changed, while teachers’ have not.
Speaking broadly about American classrooms, he said that some educators can be out of touch with the students of today.
“Teachers are still teaching trigonometry from a textbook from 1980,” Gottfried said. “This is a way that’s outdated and so kids are not feeling engaged by that.”
Bensalem uses updated textbooks, like McGraw Hill.
This is the first in a series of articles looking into chronic absenteeism and its causes — such as a lack of transportation and access to medical services and health care, among others — that could influence or become causes for children missing school.
