DETROIT (Michigan News Source) –Detroit’s public school system has used private funding to add washers and dryers in each of their schools so students can have clean clothes.
That’s part of the district’s long-term strategy to solve lagging attendance that has plagued the state’s largest school district for years.
What are the root causes?
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Detroit Public Schools Community School District stated that cultural issues such as poverty, unemployment, crime and even students with asthma are barriers to them fixing chronic absenteeism.
Chronic absenteeism, or the percentage of students who missed 18 days or more in a school year, peaked at 76.7% in 2021-22 and has dropped to 66.1% in 2022-23 and 65.8% in 2023-24.
“The root cause of chronic absenteeism in Detroit is concentrated poverty and the life factors and circumstances surrounding it,” said DPSCD spokeswoman Chystal Wilson, in an email to Michigan News Source. “Improving average daily attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism is our number one priority with our updated strategic plan.”
How school attendance is tied to test scores.
The district stated that students that are not chronically absent are three-to-five times more likely to be at or above grade level performance on state testing.
There were 82.5% of students at DPSCD in 2023-24 that were labeled “economically disadvantaged,” meaning they were eligible for some sort of government subsidy such as free-and-reduced-cost lunch program. By comparison, 45.7% of all students within the state were “economically disadvantaged” in 2023-24.
Wilson said the district has now included attendance as a factor in performance pay and principal evaluations.
The district has also implemented “health hubs” that provide free basic health care, mental health care, dental care and vision screenings for district students and families.
How does this impact grade advancement?
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In grades K-8, students who miss 45 or more days may not be promoted to the next grade level. In 2023-24, the district held back 2,663 students, or 5.6% of the total student body of 47,668. That was a 124% increase in the number of held-back students from the previous year and the most the district had held back since 2011-12, when district held back 4,531 students.
The district also has 86 attendance agents who make home visits to the students who are missing the most class.
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