Student attendance problems have numerous causes and serious consequences for student learning outcomes. Chronic absence (CA) is a critical indicator of these problems. Chronic absence is especially relevant today given that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more students to be chronically absent. However, chronic absence is not a new feature for many schools and communities in large urban school districts. Large urban school districts have the opportunity to recognize in this continuing crisis a historic failure to learn how to support schools equitably. In this brief, the authors use available literature as well as collaborative research undertaken by the Center for Urban Education Leadership (CUEL) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to address a set of questions relevant to CA. Although the authors draw on some of the research within CPS and write this in direct service to CPS, the authors view these findings as relevant to large urban school districts throughout the US. The questions that are investigates and addressed in this research brief are: (1) What does the research and practice literature tell us about chronic absence in terms of its root and proximal causes, consequences, and remedies?; (2) In what ways are these findings illuminated by collaborative research?; (3) What can schools do? That is, what kinds of systems and supports can schools put in place to support students who struggle with chronic absence?; and (4) What can large urban districts (CPS and other such districts) do? How can the district identify and prioritize supports for the schools who deal with populations most likely to struggle with chronic absence?