More than one in four students is chronically absent from school in a given year in our state.  These students miss 10% or more school days, a rate that is triple what it was before the COVID pandemic.  Many factors contribute to absenteeism, including unmet health and social needs.  Public health leaders understand that there is a strong link between academic performance and long-term health, and they have identified school attendance as a priority.  

How can small, rural schools best respond to this challenge?  What information do they need to support improved student attendance?  How can families, educators, and health care providers work together to change these numbers for the better?

A partnership has come together to bring new focus to the challenge of absenteeism that is impacting student achievement and health.  The partners are developing protocols to assess absenteeism and barriers to attendance in an initial cohort of schools, including several that are already participating in Vermont’s community school initiative.  This is a unique collaboration between medical researchers from UVM, rural health care providers, schools, and state health and education agencies that has come together to address a priority need in our state.

The partnership will engage with families to provide referrals to relevant health or social services when absenteeism is identified in students.  They will work with schools to create or strengthen interdisciplinary teams to deliver absentee prevention and response efforts.  While these supportive practices are established at these initial locations, project leaders will also provide learning opportunities and curated online resources for all of Vermont’s educational and health practitioners so they, too, can effectively confront the challenge of absenteeism. 

Dr. Heidi Schumacher, a pediatrician with the UVM Larner College of Medicine, is leading the Every Day Counts project and coordinating efforts among the partners.

Every Day Counts cross-sector partnerships between medical homes and schools are being piloted in four communities across Vermont, two of which are also participating in the UVM Catamount Community Schools Collaborative.

The work also includes state-level trainings, capacity building and policy work, including in partnership with:

• Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) is a partnership between UVM Larner College of Medicine and the State of Vermont that provides data and evaluation to improve health outcomes for children.
• Vermont Agency of Education
• Vermont Department of Health
• Vermont Department of Mental Health
• Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

WCAX-TV produced a story about this project

All in for Attendance Summit

Dr. Schumacher spoke with other national health and educational leaders about the Every Day Counts initiative at this event in Washington, DC on June 10, 2025.