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OPS attendance improves in 2024–25 but gaps remain; district to embed attendance goals in school improvement plans
Summary
OPS said 32,008 students attended regularly (missing fewer than nine days) in 2024–25, with elementary schools meeting the attendance goal rising from 24.6% to 58.5% this year; the district will align attendance goals to school improvement plans, expand coaching, and revise Attendance Policy 5008.
Lisa Utterback, presenting the ethic‑of‑care goal on attendance, reported district gains in 2024–25 and outlined next steps to embed attendance work in school improvement efforts.
Utterback said attendance data for 2024–25 were preliminary as of May 27, 2025. She reported that the district’s elementary schools count increased from 63 to 65 as two schools were added. The share of elementary schools meeting the district attendance goal rose from 24.6 percent in 2023–24 to 58.5 percent in 2024‑25. At middle school level, 61.5 percent of schools met the goal; five middle schools did not meet it, three of which showed partial improvement. At the high‑school level, no high school achieved a full increase in the percentage of students attending 95 percent or more of the year, though four high schools recorded partial increases.
Utterback said 32,008 students attended school regularly (missing fewer than 10% of school days) in the most recent year. Across programs, five of 11 programs met the attendance goal. As a district‑level summary, she said 72.4 percent of schools or programs showed year‑to‑year increase and 52 percent met strategic priority goal 4 in 2024–25.
Planned actions include recent changes to Attendance Policy 5008 to allow attendance teams time to meet families and provide early interventions, embedding attendance goals in each school’s improvement plan aligned with the district’s six tenets of AQUEST, targeted coaching and improvement coaching with District Management Group, designated attendance leads at every school and weekly progress monitoring. Utterback emphasized family communication and community partnerships as central elements.
Board members asked whether students know their attendance status; presenters said students have portal access and that advisement and counseling conversations increasingly include attendance data, though fidelity varies by school.
Ending: District staff will continue to monitor provisional attendance results, roll out the Attendance Policy changes, deliver targeted coaching for school attendance teams, and link attendance goals to reading and other academic targets.
