This brief maps the national attendance gap--the who, what, when, where and why of absenteeism--using research drawn from national sources as well as attendance data gathered across states from students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Health emerges again and again, both as a challenge and as a solution to improving attendance. The appendixes list NAEP attendance data for every state--broken down by income, race and ethnicity, and disability status--revealing large gaps in some places. The brief documents how states can use their data to help schools and communities unpack when and why chronic absence becomes a problem in the early grades so that they can put in place solutions that work. States are especially well positioned to advance innovative practice at scale, to create accountability for reducing chronic absence and to promote learning across school districts. This brief recommends five key steps: (1) Make the Case That Chronic Early Absence Matters; (2) Map Chronic Early Absence; (3) Engage Partners in Unpacking Why Early Absences Occur; (4) Learn from Positive Outliers; and (5) Embed Action into Existing Initiatives. This brief concludes with a discussion about how various stakeholders across sectors can help strengthen state-level capacity to map and address the attendance gap.