District leaders presented the monthly monitoring report linking attendance to the board's academic goals: third-grade ELA proficiency and Algebra I proficiency in ninth grade.

Dr. Morgan and the academic team said average daily attendance is up from last year but chronic absenteeism has risen in key bands: K'3 chronic absenteeism stood at about 43.7% and ninth-grade chronic absenteeism at about 58.1% at the time of the presentation. The presenters noted students with disabilities have higher chronic absenteeism rates in those cohorts (K'3: 45.49% for students with disabilities vs. 43.19% for students without; ninth grade: 66.71% vs. 56.53%). By contrast, English language learners in these grade bands have lower chronic-absence rates compared with peers.

The district described work underway: a tiered attendance system under the academic office, attendance liaisons and family support specialists conducting outreach and home visits, identification and removal of "no-show" students from rosters (561 removed to date in the reporting period and about 364 over-age students reviewed), a communications campaign, incentive partnerships and a proposed attendance task force to examine root causes and targeted interventions. Presenters emphasized that chronic absenteeism counts missed school time for any reason, including excused absences and suspensions, and explained that the state's chronic-absence threshold equates to roughly 10% of scheduled days (for example, about nine days of absence in a 90-day span).

Board members asked for subgroup analysis (students with disabilities, ELLs), clarification on district processes for special education identification when attendance is an issue, and more specific proposals on interventions for the groups most at risk. The administration said it will follow up with additional detail and continue monitoring through the goals-and-guardrails process.