Affiliate Eric Grodsky and colleagues contributed “Why student absences aren’t the real problem in America’s ‘attendance crisis’” to the Wisconsin State Journal. In the piece, the researchers detail their investigation into how excused and unexcused absences relate to children’s academic achievement. They argue that attendance policies end up disproportionately punishing families dealing with out-of-school crises in their lives and pressuring schools that serve them to get students to school more often. Grodsky and colleagues instead suggest using unexcused absence from school as a signal to channel resources to the children and families who need them most.