Two-thirds of Detroit students ‘chronically absent’ – IOTW Report

Two-thirds of Detroit students ‘chronically absent’

EAG: DETROIT – Despite a new attendance policy that could see truant students and their parents actually prosecuted in court, more than two-thirds of the students enrolled in the Detroit school district are still classified as “chronically absent.”

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This is defined by the state as missing more than 10 school days in a year.

Detroit saw 67.1 percent of its students deemed chronically absent in 2013-14, the latest year data is available. The statewide average is 25.5 percent. Even the troubled Education Achievement Authority, the state office given oversight of Michigan’s worst-performing individual schools, experienced chronic absence in just 23.7 percent of its students.

Other troubled school districts also struggle with student absence.  more here

15 Comments on Two-thirds of Detroit students ‘chronically absent’

  1. All hail the nanny state. While reporting my kid’s third day in a row absence from school due to the flu, the school sternly warned me that if he takes a fourth day off he was _required_ to come to school with a doctor’s note or be suspended. How much sense does it make to punish a kid for missing school by making him miss school? Apparently the school and doctor knows better than the parents.

  2. I didn’t hardly miss any school until I got to my to my Senior year in HS in 1970-71 and because we had an open campus policy and didn’t have to be there physically in between classes I left in my 55 Chevy station wagon and came back later when I had classes to attend. I hated High School, it was a waste of time. I went to the Downtown library or an old books store or hung around my Dad’s shop when I didn’t have to be there. And yes, it did get me into some trouble but I didn’t care and for the most part they didn’t either.

  3. Imagine my surprise when finding out (with two kids with perfect attendance records) that our school district no longer gave out the certificates. Their “reasoning” is that if you’re deathly ill, a perfect-attendance record would encourage the student to come to school and make everyone else sick.

    Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

    Wonder if there’s a correlation between my kids having after-school and after-graduation jobs (that they always show up for)?

  4. Ten days out of a year does not strike me as “chronic”, it’s only a little more than one day a month. I wonder what percentage misses 30-40 days a year? I would consider that chronic.

  5. The kids have at least 10 “half-days” a year while the teachers have their conferences. If anything the teachers are chronic absent. When I was a kid they had their conferences on weekends or after a FULL day of school.

  6. It’s probably a case of using a euphemism for the students who have actually dropped out completely and the district doesn’t want to lose their gov’t sugar so they call it “chronic absence”.

  7. Yeah, and the teachers are missing three months of work and still getting 12 months of pay every single year, go figure.
    Like most everything government does it’s way too expensive for the product or lack thereof.

  8. Seriously, for all a little feral thug is gonna learn in one of those Detroit unionized cesspits of indoctrination, running the streets and learning the ins and outs of dope dealing, pimping, or sucking off guys at the bus station, is probably gonna be more useful.

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