There is no "typical skipper," said Betsy Landers, National PTA president, one of several experts who participated in a conference call with reporters Tuesday to discuss the report. "The problem has no boundaries and threads across all demographics."

What might surprise some educators and parents (and should probably set off some alarm bells, as well) is the belief among the school-skippers that their absences go largely unnoticed at home or at school. Students rated their odds of being caught skipping by school officials as 50-50, and described their parents as even less observant. Those findings emphasize that "parents are the first line of defense," Landers said.

Also on the call with reporters was Todd Peterson, an assistant principal at Chaparral High School in Las Vegas -- one of the 25 cities in the survey -- who said campus efforts to address absenteeism are complicated by a lack of resources for support staff and truancy officers. At the same time, Peterson said, parents don't always treat early warnings from schools as seriously as they should, which means students often miss so many days that they have little chance of catching up.

The report suggests a sizable disconnect between students' perceptions of the consequences of their actions and the wealth of research indicating they are significantly hurting their academic prospects by cutting class. The student respondents said their grades and chances of graduating are only really at risk if they skip at least once per week.

When asked why they skip school, most common among students' "very big reasons" were that they find school boring (32 percent), that school starts too early (26 percent), and that it is more fun to spend time with friends (23 percent).

I was particularly interested in the students' answers when asked what would encourage them to attend school more regularly. More than half of them said they would be much more likely to come to class if "I could see a clear connection between the classes I take and the job I want."

That bolsters the argument for students' coursework to be more in line with their career interests, Steve DeWitt, senior director of public policy for the Association of Career and Technical Education, told me in an interview Tuesday. Unlike traditional vocational education classes, where students break off from their peers on the college track, CTE puts equal emphasis on academics and career training. Research indicates that students in CTE programs are more likely to graduate and to continue their educations beyond high school than their peers in traditional academic settings.