Balfanz, Robert and Vaughn Byrnes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools. May 2012. Researchers evaluated chronic absence data from six states—Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Nebraska, Oregon and Rhode Island—to assess trends and predict the size of the nation’s attendance challenge. A national rate of 10 percent chronic absenteeism seems conservative and it could be as high as 15 percent, meaning that 5 million to 7.5 million students are chronically absent. The six states reported chronic absenteeism rates from 6 percent to 23 percent, with high poverty urban areas reporting up to one-third of students chronically absent and rural areas showing one in four students.