This message addresses a topic that may surprise you about our school community: the prevalence of chronic absenteeism. A few months ago, I wrote about this topic as a way to bring more awareness to incidental absenteeism, which simply is my way of explaining how a couple of absences a month can really add up and surprise students and parents when eventually it meets the state's threshold of "chronic absenteeism" by this time in the school year, or earlier in many cases. Here's what I wrote a few months ago:
Principals have been stressing the importance of attendance with more frequency over the last two years. Going back to 2015, our typical average daily attendance (ADA) was 96%, and (like other school districts) we saw a general decline during the post-pandemic years of 2021-22 and 2022-23. Last school year we began to turn a corner as ADA rose to 95%, with hopes of returning to 96% by the end of this school year.
ADA doesn't tell the whole story, though. More glaring is the chronic absenteeism data we have been tracking since 2018, the first year the state required schools to report this information. During the same post-pandemic years of 2021-23, chronic absenteeism hit 14% before dropping off to 8.3% in 2023-24. Though still a way to go in hitting the low of 6.4% during the 2018-19 year, we are working hard to partner with families in reducing the number of students who are missing large numbers of school days. We know that nothing replaces consistent daily instruction and learning experiences when it comes to academic progress, and making regular school attendance a priority for each student raises the bar for all students.
Well, this year we find a chronic absenteeism rate of 10.8%, exceeding last year's 8.3% and the year still has two months left. Please find information below regarding chronic absenteeism from the district's Director of Academic Services, Mar-E Trebilcock.
My best wishes for a restful upcoming break.