School Attendance

Percent Chronic Absenteeism - Dodge and Jefferson Counties

Current Value

11.2%

SY 2023

Definition

Chronic absenteeism is a student-level determination based on the ratio of days attended to days possible. A student is considered chronically absent if he or she misses more than 10% of possible attendance days, but is only included in the calculation if he or she was enrolled for at least 90 non-consecutive days in the school year.

Chronic absenteeism is a student-level determination based on the ratio of days attended to days possible. A&nbsp;student is considered chronically absent if he or she misses more than&nbsp;10% of possible attendance days, but is only included in the calculation if he or she was enrolled for at least&nbsp;90 non-consecutive days&nbsp;in the school year.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Line Bar Comparison

Story Behind the Curve

Every Child Thrives partners identified chronic absenteeism as a root cause of low 3rd grade reading proficiency rates. Chronic absence — missing 10 percent or more of school days due to absence for any reason—excused, unexcused absences and suspensions—can translate into students having difficulty learning to read by the third-grade, achieving in middle school, and graduating from high school. The Every Child Thrives effort is striving to move the attendance curve upward.

Over the last five years Every Child Thrives has focused on building a culture of communication that recognizes the importance of regular attendance. The Challenge 5 campaign was a strategy used to engage community partners and educators in universal messaging to families, challenging them to miss no more than 5 days of school in one year. The effort recognized positive school attendance through events and incentives. Following the first year of the campaign, there was a 4% improvement in outstanding attendance (those who were in school more than 97% of the time), and the percentage of students who had acceptable attendance (missing less than 9 days) rose from 65% to 66%.

Years 4 and 5 were deeply impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, 8 million students were affected by chronic absence. Today chronic absence has more than doubled. Students of color, those living in poverty, and English language learners have tended to be especially affected.

What Works

Challenge 5 Universal Messaging Campaign
Monitoring, setting goals data with attendance teams
Individualized family interventions

Strategy

Challenge 5 Universal Messaging Campaign
Monitoring data, setting goals with attendance teams
Individualized family interventions

Data Methodology

*Local Dodge & Jefferson County Data represents an aggregate of students in 4k through 4th/5th grade in the Dodgeland, Hustisford, Jefferson, Johnson Creek, Lake Mills, Waterloo and Watertown School Districts ; including also Ixonia Elementary School.

*Wisconsin data represents those classified as elementary school students.

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