What Happened?

At least one in four K-12 students missed enough school to count as chronically absent in recent years, deepening a crisis for American schools. The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) defines chronically absent as missing 10 percent or more of school days.

As absences stayed high after the COVID-19 pandemic, Education in 2026 stopped its most complete check on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), the main federal K-12 school funding law. That check covered both program rules and money rules, and it was the main tool for holding states accountable for how they spent federal education dollars.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal watchdog, found in a new report, K-12 Education: Actions to Improve Oversight of Key Federal Programs and Address High Chronic Absenteeism, that the way Education counts absences is itself unreliable and can produce rates that are statistically impossible.

Why Does it Matter to Me?

A federal watchdog found the DOE calculates chronic absenteeism rates in a way that produces unreliable numbers. Education requires states to count absent students over a full school year but counts total enrollment on a single date, a mismatch that can push rates over 100 percent.

The report found implausible chronic absenteeism rates at over 30 percent of low-performing schools, and under 2 percent of others. More than 30 percent of low-performing schools and shared-time schools, such as those that house career and technical programs, had implausible rates.

GAO warns that without active oversight, those funds face a heightened risk of undetected fraud, waste, or abuse. Title I money rules make up about two-thirds of the nearly $27 billion in ESEA funding in fiscal year 2025, taxpayer money that faces a higher risk of undetected fraud, waste or abuse without active oversight.

Both Sides, Now

The GAO said Education should promptly restart more complete ESEA monitoring, fix the enrollment mismatch and issue guidance on how states should report data for shared-time schools. The GAO also said Congress should act because the ESEA oversight provision does not directly tell Education to monitor states or say how or how often to do it.

Education agreed with one of the three recommendations and disagreed with two. The Secretary of Education called it a transition year and said, While we were in a transition year and have not carried out consolidated monitoring, we continue to monitor across ESEA programs. The GAO rejected that view and said it continues to believe these actions are necessary.

GAO says Congress should clarify monitoring requirements in ESEA to ensure compliance and deter waste, fraud, and abuse. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the most recent update to ESEA, requires all states getting Title I money to have statewide accountability systems, and 36 states chose to include chronic absenteeism in those systems.

What Happens Next?

The current Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, was nominated by President Trump and assumed office in March, 2025. The GAO recommended that the she resume comprehensive ESEA monitoring and fix the enrollment reporting mismatch, and that Congress consider clearly articulating monitoring requirements. Whether Congress moves to write those rules into law, and whether Education reverses course, will decide how much visibility the federal government keeps over one of its largest school spending programs.

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