Battle Creek board presses district staff for strategy after chronic absenteeism data shows one-third of students affected

Board members pressed district leaders Feb. 11 for a coordinated strategy to reduce chronic absenteeism after staff presented current attendance data showing about 32.4% of students had missed 10% or more of the school year to date.

Dr. Cheeks, the district presenter on attendance, said: “The definition of chronic absenteeism is if a student is missing 10% or more of the number of days that we've been in school session.” She explained that students missing 18 or more days by the end of the year would be considered chronically absent and that, as of last Thursday, 1,166 students had already reached that threshold while 523 were in the at‑risk category.

District staff described a multi-pronged approach now in place: school attendance teams (referred to at times as “attendance teams” or “tennis teams” in the presentation) that case-manage students; letters and direct parent outreach at milestones; partnership with community organizations such as YPIC and Communities In Schools…