2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

Using Data for City and Regional Strategies 269
Figure 6.2.1. Chronic Absenteeism Rates Vary in Oakland, California
Schools with High Average Daily Attendance
30%
25%
Share of students, 2012
20%
15%
10%
7%
12%
13% 13%
15%
16%
5%
0%
A B C
D E F
Schools with greater than 95% avg. daily attendance
A review of data from three districts revealed that if schools had 98 percent
average daily attendance, they typically had relatively low levels of
chronic absence of 5 percent or less. If a school had 93 percent average
attendance, however, often chronic absence affected 20 percent or more
of the students. Based on average daily attendance alone, it was difficult
to determine whether chronic absence was a problem for large numbers
of children if a school had 95 percent average daily attendance (Bruner,
Discher, and Chang 2011).
Third, many schools and communities may not realize that tracking
truancy is different from monitoring chronic absence. Often, the terms
truancy and chronic absence are used interchangeably, but they don’t
mean the same thing. Truancy generally refers to unexcused absences,
although the precise definition of what constitutes truancy is determined
by each state based on No Child Left Behind. For example, in
Utah, students are counted as truant if they have 10 unexcused absences,
but in Maryland the trigger is missing 20 percent of the school year due
to unexcused absences.
Truancy overlooks, however, when children miss a lot of school but the
absences are excused. Particularly when children are young, they can miss
a lot of school due to excused absences. Consider figure 6.2.2. It shows