Oklahoma schools are trying to cut their chronic absenteeism rates.
Overall, about one in 10 kindergarten through 12th grade students miss at least 18 days of school a year. In high school, it’s approaching one in five students.
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said schools must take a role in reducing those rates by asking students why they aren’t coming to school and be ready for difficult answers.
"Oklahoma being ranked third-highest in instance of child abuse and neglect in the country is just staggering but is a factor that we must address," Hofmeister said.
Students missing 10 percent of the year are considered chronically absent. That’s as few as two days a month.
Hofmeister said many factors can keep kids from getting to school.
"Are they bullied? Are they in need of transportation because they have become suddenly homeless? Are they in foster systems where we are seeing lots of high mobility, where kids are moving due to those particular incidents of child abuse and neglect and trauma? And so this is something that all works together," Hofmeister said.
Chronically absent students are less likely to read at grade level and more likely to drop out. Oklahoma’s new school accountability plan uses chronic absenteeism as its chosen indicator of student success in addition to federally required measures.
