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School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic signified a turn in education. During the 2020-2021 school year, school attendance rates dropped significantly compared with previous years, and absenteeism was more severe in school districts that closed for in-person instruction than those districts that remained open during the pandemic.1 Although school districts across the United States have now reopened for in-person learning, school attendance has continued to remain below prepandemic levels, most notably among low-income and black and Hispanic students.2 This school attendance decrease poses a risk for negative outcomes in children.3 School attendance is an even better predictor of school performance than test scores.4 Prior research suggests that chronic absenteeism, or missing at least 15 days of school in a year, impacts academic outcomes; for example, absenteeism in first grade affects reading level in the third grade. Furthermore, the incidence of chronic absenteeism in 1 year between grades 8 and 12 is associated with a 7-fold increase in school dropout rates.5 As a driver of academic outcomes, school absenteeism also has longterm implications for health and social functioning. Extensive research has shown an unequivocal association between low educational achievement and poor social and health outcomes,6 including unemployment and low-paying jobs, unhealthy habits such as smoking and lack of exercise, and increased mortality and lower life expectancy.6-8 The importance of school attendance was understood early on in the history of US education when compulsory attendance laws were introduced by Puritan leaders as early as 1642. By 1890, the majority of US states had passed compulsory education laws. These laws were and continue to be mostly nonenforceable and have had only modest success in increasing attendance.9,10 Strategies to encourage school attendance, therefore, largely take place outside of the legal system and generally rely on multidisciplinary support from physicians and other professionals in a child’s life (eg, teachers, therapists).11 In the context of concerns for the 6.5 million children with chronic absenteeism, a prepandemic policy statement called pediatricians to promote regular school attendance.3 Recommendations included multisector interventions involving school nurses, schoolbased health centers, mental health services, and families. The need to propel this message is critical at a time of decreased school attendance rates following the COVID-19 pandemic. Risk factors for chronic absenteeism are multilayered and include individual factors, such temperament, medical and psychiatric comorbidities, low self-esteem, and a heightened sensitivity to school failures; peer-related factors, such as difficulties with peer relationships and bullying; school-related factors, such as the school climate, school connectedness, or the child’s perception of safety and feelings of being valued at school; and family-related factors, such as poverty, homelessness, being in a singleparent household, parental history of psychiatric illness, low parent involvement or high conflict, and family enmeshment.3 Finally, structural issues, such as limited transportation and neighborhood violence, can be obstacles to school attendance and are particularly prevalent in disadvantaged communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, typical structural contributors may have been amplified. These structural barriers to school attendance during the pandemic may have included having to supervise younger siblings, lacking access to the internet or a computer to attend virtual class, and lacking parental supervision of daytime activities when parents had jobs that required in-person attendance, among others. In addition, social media use among children and adolescents, known to be associated with both school absenteeism12 and the underlying contributors to absenteeism (eg, low 1174772 CPJXXX10.1177/00099228231174772Clinical PediatricsVidal et al article-commentary2023