It's axiomatic that steady attendance promotes steady learning: The more you show up, the more you learn. But attendance is more than a simple (if vital) predictor of learning, according to a new reportfrom the Center for New York City Affairs/Milano-The New School for Management and Urban Policy.

"Problems at schools overlap directly with problems at home," says Center director Andrew White. School attendance reflects a community's physical and mental health and its commitment to education as a basic value. Chronic absence, endemic across the city's schools and highest in high-need communities, is a reliable predictor of future academic failure: If students don't learn the basics they need by third grade, school becomes a dispiriting game of catch-up. Absence can also be a marker for potential abuse or neglect. How effectively a community is knit into the life of the school is a critical factor in increasing attendance, according to the report, and strongly influences the engagement, health, and eventual achievement of the children it serves.

More than 90,000 elementary school children, or 20% of the K-5 total, missed at least 20 days of school last year, according to the Center's analysis of DOEstatistics. The highest levels of chronic absence are seen in the poorest districts; causes range from health issues (like uncontrolled asthma and other childhood illnesses) and family challenges (mental health, economics, language differences, mobility, and relocation) to extended vacations and a lack of emphasis, in some communities, on the value of early childhood education.

The report recognizes steady progress in attendance but challenges DOE structures to continue to strengthen attendance oversight -- by increasing its importance in calculating Annual Progress Reports, reshaping the responsibilities of overburdened attendance teachers, developing "community schools" -- open 6 or 7 days a week, with a spectrum of social, medical, after-school and tutoring services, and targeting the 50 or 100 schools most burdened by chronic absenteeism.

There's ample controversy as to whether NCLB strictures--which mandate robust testing--undermine kids' engagement at school by limiting 'fun' classes like music and art in favor of testable academics. Ed wonks can thrash out the relative virtues of a Broader, Bolder Approachor Education Equality. What's beyond argument is the integrity of the basic premise -- attendance matters, and embedding the school into the lives of the families and children it serves strengthens the school and the community, even as it supports consistent academic gains.

For a much more detailed discussion of the issue and potential solutions, along with eye-opening graphics, see the complete report, edited by Insideschools' co-founder Clara Hemphill.