Nearly 1 in 5 Wake students is chronically absent. District seeks community’s help
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- Wake County reports 18% of students are chronically absent this school year.
- Limited English Proficient students have a 31.9% chronic absence rate.
- District is launching an Attendance Task Force and a community media campaign.
The Wake County school system wants the community’s help to combat the problem of chronic absenteeism that is causing nearly one in five students to frequently miss school.
New data presented on Tuesday shows that 18% of Wake County students are chronically absent this school year, meaning they missed at least 10% of their school days. School leaders say they need to get that figure down, especially among some groups, if they’re going to help students get caught up academically.
“The district can’t solve this alone,” Michael Pesce, Wake’s director of social work, told the school board’s student achievement committee. “The current issue that our community partners find is that sometimes we are difficult to deal with since we are so large.”
Wake is North Carolina’s largest school district. It has more than 160,000 students.
The school district is launching an Attendance Task Force. Wake also plans to start a community media campaign promoting the importance of regular school attendance.
Chronic absenteeism up since pandemic
Chronic absenteeism soared after the pandemic locally, statewide and nationally.
Before the pandemic, 15% of students were chronically absent in both Wake County and North Carolina. But in the 2022-23 school year, it had risen to 22.5% in Wake County and 31% in North Carolina.
Figures as of April show chronic absenteeism in Wake has been going down. But the 18% figure is still above pre-pandemic levels.
There was a wide range of chronic absenteeism rates this school year among different Wake County student groups:
- 31.9% of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students were chronically absent.
- 31.1% of Hispanic students were chronically absent.
- 29.3% of special education (SPED) students were chronically absent.
- 26.8% of Black students were chronically absent.
- 10.4% of white students were chronically absent.
- 8% of Asian students were chronically absent.
“What is striking is the number of Black, Hispanic, LEP and SPED students who are close to or just over the 30% mark,” Pesce said. “It is where the country was at the worst part of the pandemic. Those groups are still sitting there.”
This school year’s attendance numbers coincide with an increased federal immigration enforcement surge, particularly in the fall when Border Patrol agents came to Wake County.
Superintendent Robert Taylor has pointed to the increased immigration enforcement as a reason why attendance and graduation rate numbers are declining this year. That wasn’t mentioned during Tuesday’s committee discussion.
Asking teachers to talk with parents about attendance
One of the goals in the Wake County school system’s strategic plan is to have 95% of students in school at least 95% of the time. As of last school year, Wake only had 52.1% of students meeting that 95% attendance goal.
Wake contracted with Attendance Works to do an audit of how the district handles attendance issues. The non-profit group surveyed school employees and helped develop a list of recommendations that includes more training and support for schools.
Other recommendations include a community call to action and shifting from warning about the consequences of truancy to having a more proactive year-round relationship with families.
Wake takes some families to court if they violate the state’s compulsory school attendance law. Pesce said that will always remain a feature of Wake’s efforts. But Pesce said the focus should shift to encouraging families to attend school.
Pesce said teachers talking about the importance of attending school regularly needs to be part of the conversation with parents.
“We want you to be here needs to be the message,” Pesce said.
