Ann Zaniewski

Detroit Free Press Education Writer

A new report on chronic school absenteeism says half of the country's chronically absent kids are in just in 4% of school districts — including Detroit, where more than half the kids in the city's school system are chronically absent.

Detroit is one of the cities, along with Philadelphia, Baltimore, Milwaukee and Cleveland, highlighted in the report released publicly today.

Chronic absence occurs when a child misses so many days of school — whether the absences are excused, unexcused or suspensions — that it negatively impacts his or her academic achievement.

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The report, created by Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, said nearly 58% of students in Detroit's school system are chronically absent. The national rate is about 13%.

Researcher Robert Balfanz said Detroit is the only city of 25 major cities to have a higher rate of chronic absenteeism in elementary school than in high school. However, about 1,000 school districts nationwide reported the same.

"Chronic absence is really a proven early indicator of academic risk, starting as early as preschool and kindergarten," said Hedy Chang, another researcher and executive director of Attendance Works. "By middle and high school, it is a sure-fire predictor of kids being on the path to drop out."

Alycia Meriweather, the interim superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, has said the district is planning to crack down on chronic absenteeism through better tracking of student data. The district is projected to have 45,500 students this school year.

The report is based on 2013-14 data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, with chronic absence being defined as missing 15 or more days for any reason. It is also based on additional statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics.

Some of the report's findings:

Chronic absence at varying levels impacts 89% of school districts in the U.S.

Half of the chronically absent students nationwide are in just 4% of school districts and 12% of schools

Some of the places with the largest numbers of chronically absent students are affluent, suburban districts known for academic achievement, such as the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Montgomery County, Md. and Fairfax County, Va.

Districts serving disadvantaged urban neighborhoods with high rates of poverty typically have both high rates and large numbers of chronically absent students. In these places, researchers said, chronic absence "reflects a web of structural challenges," such as the lack of adequate affordable housing and the absence of well-resourced schools. These places are also highly segregated communities of color, researchers said.

Many poor, small rural school districts have extremely high rates of chronic absenteeism.

Chang said chronic absenteeism can be overlooked because many districts often only monitor truancy, meaning unexcused absences, or average daily attendance. She said both can mask high levels of chronic absence.

Researchers identified Grand Rapids as one of the places that has successfully combated chronic absence. There, the problem has been reduced over three years from 35.1% to 22.5%. The report says the district's use of data to track and then reach out to chronically absent kids; a campaign called Challenge 5, which urged students to try to miss fewer than five school days per year, and partnerships with community agencies to address families' needs have contributed to the improvement. A Challenge 5 leader board is at the entrance of every school, giving a monthly update on how each grade is doing.

The report, called "Preventing Missed Opportunity: Taking Collective Action to Confront Chronic Absence," can be found on the website of Attendance Works at www.attendanceworks.org.

Attendance Works is a national and state initiative that promotes better policy and practice around school attendance. The mission of the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education is to develop and disseminate the know-how students need to graduate from high school prepared for the rest of their lives.

Contact Ann Zaniewski: 313-222-6594 or azaniewskit@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @AnnZaniewski.