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Iowa will require exact-minute absenteeism reporting; district warns conversion will make chronic absenteeism appear higher
Summary
Board discussion explains Iowa's shift to reporting exact minutes for chronic absenteeism will make rates look worse even if actual absenteeism did not increase; staff will convert historical data for administrators and explain the change to the community.
District staff told trustees the state is changing chronic-absence reporting from a half-/full-day system to exact minutes, which will make past and current data appear different when converted.
"Next year, we'll have to report exact minutes," Speaker 8 said, explaining the conversion and warning that the district's chronic-absence percentage will appear to increase even if total minutes missed did not. The district reported it has been tracking exact minutes locally and will provide converted historical data to administrators so the trend can be explained.
Trustees also explored how attendance-growth points are calculated. Speaker 8 said the attendance-growth component focuses on students who were chronically absent in prior years; roughly half the attendance score reflects growth among those students while the other half is the chronic-absence rate. Board members noted that lower chronic absenteeism in a given year can make it harder to show future growth.
Staff said they will present converted-minute trend data to the board and administrators to clarify year-over-year comparisons before publicizing changes in district-level reports.
