{"id":265292,"date":"2026-08-14T13:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265292\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T13:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:28:07","slug":"more-than-1-in-3-bensalem-high-school-students-missed-at-least-18-days-of-class-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265292\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than 1 in 3 Bensalem High School Students Missed at Least 18 Days of Class Last Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

While chronic absenteeism remains a persistent problem in schools across the country following the COVID-19 pandemic, Bensalem High School<\/a> continues to report rates well above the 21% state average<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chronic absenteeism in Pennsylvania is defined<\/a> as missing 10% of enrolled days at a given school. Any days missed \u2014 including excused absences and suspensions \u2014 count towards this figure.<\/p>\n

Studies have demonstrated<\/a> that higher rates of chronic absenteeism lowers a student\u2019s academic achievements and raises their dropout rate. Recently, evidence<\/a> points toward a link between chronic absenteeism and school recovery post-COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania followed a nationwide trend<\/a> of chronic absenteeism, which spiked during the pandemic and reached 26%<\/a> statewide in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ: Pittsburgh Public Schools Sets Sights on Attendance After 30% of Students Were Chronically Absent Last Year<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the pandemic \u2014 and during the 2018-19 school year \u2014 the rate of chronically absent students at Bensalem High School was already 34%<\/a>, compared to the statewide 15% average for the same year.<\/p>\n

These rates increased throughout COVID closures at the school, reaching a high of 44% in the 2021-22 school year and compounding Bensalem\u2019s preexisting issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the years following this spike the rate has dropped eight percentage points, settling at roughly 36% for the 2025-26 school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the 2025-26 school year at Bensalem High School, 773 of the 2,142 students missed at least 18 days of class.<\/p>\n

Seven students missed 100 or more days or more than half of Bensalem\u2019s 180-day school year.<\/p>\n

\n

Bensalem Township School District did not respond to multiple requests from the Bucks County Beacon for comment on the school\u2019s chronic absenteeism rate.<\/p>\n

Along with an abnormally high rate of chronic absenteeism, a large portion of the high school\u2019s population is classified<\/a> as habitually truant.<\/p>\n

In Pennsylvania, a student becomes habitually truant once they accumulate six or more unexcused absences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ: Bensalem School District Urges Residents to \u2018Keep Our Schools Strong\u2019 with New Reporting Program<\/a><\/p>\n

After passing a three unexcused absence threshold at Bensalem, school policy is to send a First Notice letter<\/a> home. If the student reaches six unexcused absences, the school sends an invitation for a Student Attendance Improvement Plan<\/a> meeting.<\/p>\n

Under state law<\/a>, the Student Attendance Improvement Conferences discussions are not a legal requirement for children or guardians to attend. Pennsylvania Department of Education<\/a> advises<\/a> that schools \u201cshould make every attempt to conduct the SAIC with the person in parental relationship present.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rate of habitual truancy in the school \u2014 from the 2025-26 school year \u2014 sits at nearly 40%, with 842 students reaching the threshold requiring Bensalem to offer an SAIP meeting.<\/p>\n

There is not one clear cause for the growth of this educational phenomenon, said Michael Gottfried, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania<\/a> and a leading expert and researcher in chronic student absenteeism.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On the first day of the January 2020 semester, Gottfried recounted that he \u201cdefinitely\u201d taught the first day of classes with a 102 degree fever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first day, I have to handle the syllabus, of course I\u2019m going to go,\u201d Gottfried said. \u201cNow I would never even consider doing something like that \u2014 that wouldn\u2019t even cross my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

EDUCATION WEEK: Solving Chronic Absenteeism Isn\u2019t \u2018One-Size-Fits-All,\u2019 This Leader Says<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Gottfried also reasoned the overall rise in chronic absenteeism is partially due to the fact that overall children\u2019s perceptions of school have changed, while teachers\u2019 have not.<\/p>\n

Speaking broadly about American classrooms, he said that some educators can be out of touch with the students of today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers are still teaching trigonometry from a textbook from 1980,\u201d Gottfried said. \u201cThis is a way that\u2019s outdated and so kids are not feeling engaged by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bensalem uses updated<\/a> textbooks, like McGraw Hill.<\/p>\n

This is the first in a series of articles looking into chronic absenteeism and its causes \u2014\u00a0such as a lack of transportation and access to medical services and health care, among others\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0that could influence or become causes for children missing school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While chronic absenteeism remains a persistent problem in schools across the country following the COVID-19 pandemic, Bensalem High…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194],"class_list":["post-265292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}