The state Department of Education is deploying real-time data to help Indiana schools improve student attendance rates that are still not where they were pre-pandemic.
Data presented to the State Board of Education Sept. 11 showed 17.8% of K-12 students were considered chronically absent last year because they missed at least 18 days. It translates to one in five students missing at least 10% of school days or about three-and-a-half weeks.
There is a measure of hope, however. Those numbers are a slight improvement, officials said.
In 2023, the state cited a 19.2% chronic absentee rate and 21.1% in 2022.
The absentee rate for 2019-2020 was 10.6% — the school year when most districts switched to elearning in March as COVID-19 infection rates rose.
The real-time program, Attendance Insights, is already being used in school districts and the DOE plans to roll it out on a public website in the coming weeks.
A few early reviews were positive, although school leaders said beyond offering the real-time program to identify attendance data, the state isn’t providing funding to tackle strategies to boost attendance.
School City of Hobart Superintendent Peggy Buffington said it’s a great monitoring tool.
“It works well utilizing your student information system to identify the children that you see in the metrics that have landed you in a percentage of attendance that is excused and unexcused for the week,” she said.
Buffington said schools then use their own resources to check on absent students and provide assistance.
In Gary, Superintendent Yvonne Stokes listed the district’s attendance rate at 82% on Aug. 27.
Stokes said students missing five days trigger a meeting with their family.
A new student support department is visiting the homes of absent students to talk with parents or guardians about why students aren’t in school, she said.
A new state law calls for schools to intervene earlier if elementary students are absent without an excuse.
Parents whose children miss 10 or more days can be referred to the county prosecutor’s office for possible truancy charges.
DOE officials linked attendance to better academic outcomes. They said students who are chronically absent were less likely to read by third grade and master English and math skills or be college-ready.
John Hunter, superintendent of the Union Township schools, said the district is using the dashboard administratively and has shared it with some staff and with the school board.
“To the extent the data is accurate, yes, it can be helpful,” Hunter said in an email. “We are hopeful that as time goes on, data will be more accurate as it posts to the site. As with all things new, we have to work through the errors.”
Hunter added that his district has not received any new dollars to address absenteeism.
Lake Station Superintendent Thomas Cripliver said the district is using the new real-time tool, but it’s too early to rate its effectiveness since a funding crisis has left it with only three in-school days and two remote learning days.
Cripliver said attendance is taken on the remote learning days, as well as the in-school days.
“I have high hopes for it,” he said of the program.
The DOE said absenteeism improved 2.2 percentage points among Black, Hispanic and low-income students.
Chronic absenteeism is highest at the high school level, specifically in grades 11 and 12. Nearly one in three Hoosier students are chronically absent during their senior year.
State officials plan to launch the public version of the attendance dashboard on the DOE’s EdData page later in the fall.
It will display attendance data at the grade, school, and district levels. The dashboard will show different types of absences such as excused or unexcused, as well as chronic absence rates. It will allow users to view longitudinal data that can be broken down by student population.
“Although we are seeing improvement in Indiana, we must continue to link arms to do everything we can to ensure our students are coming to school,” said Secretary of Education Katie Jenner.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
