Pre-kindergarten attendance matters: Early chronic absence patterns and relationships to learning outcomes

•Chronic absenteeism is widespread among pre-kindergarten students.•Students entering pre-kindergarten with the lowest skills miss the most school days.•Pre-k students with higher absences have lower kindergarten readiness scores.•Chronically absent pre-kindergarteners miss more school in future grades.•Students chronically absent for several years need reading intervention by grade 3.