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PGCPS: chronic absenteeism tied to lower core‑content grades; district to provide attendance-code breakdown
Summary
District staff told the board that chronic absenteeism (missing 10%+ of membership days) is associated with substantially lower core-content grades and higher failing rates, especially in high school. Staff said elementary chronic absenteeism fell to 23% (Q2) while middle school rose to 18% and high school remained ~34%; the district will return attendance-code and transportation data requested by board members.
Anthony Whittington presented the committee with midyear chronic absenteeism and course-grade overlays at the April 20 meeting, defining a chronically absent student as one who is enrolled at least 10 days and has missed 10% or more of their membership days.
Whittington said elementary chronic absenteeism declined from 27% in the prior year (Q2) to 23% this year (Q2). He reported a slight increase in middle-school chronic absenteeism (16% to 18%) and said high-school rates were essentially unchanged at 34%.
The presentation included a direct comparison of course-grade distributions: among non‑chronically absent elementary students, 44% earned A grades compared with 26% of chronically absent peers; in middle school the A rate was 38% (non-absent) vs. 18% (chronically absent); and in high school 36% of non-chronically absent students earned As compared with 12% of chronically absent students. Whittington noted that roughly 30% of chronically absent high-schoolers received E/failing grades and an additional share received Ds, meaning more than half of chronically absent high-school students were earning Ds or Es in core content at the midyear snapshot.
Board members raised concerns about how reason codes (illness, bereavement, transportation, etc.) appear in ParentView compared with the legacy SchoolMax system and requested a code-by-code breakdown for chronically absent students. District staff said transportation-related tardiness is tracked with specific codes when schools enter them and acknowledged that accurate school-level coding is required to produce precise breakdowns. Staff also described an attendance task force and an upcoming 'attendance ambassadors' launch and agreed to provide the board with the requested code-frequency tables and the procedures used when students have complex enrollment or custody situations.
The committee did not take formal action; district staff committed to follow up with detailed attendance-code, transportation, and cohort-level information for board review.
