Student absenteeism has been a problem for at least a decade in schools around the country, and school officials report that student attendance rates worsened during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey of schools across the country found that 72 percent of public schools had higher teacher absenteeism rates than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Teacher absenteeism is also a growing problem over the past three school years, which can result in significant learning loss and can have negative impacts on nonacademic and behavioral outcomes for students. Policy recommendations are provided to state policymakers and school-district officials in order to address the alarming teacher absences by expanding education choice and consequences for absentee teachers.