EVERY STUDENT receives this message. We do this for the whole student population, just like we give grades and feedback to every student.
Our school is committed to keeping accurate track of when your child is here with us in school and when they are not. Thank you for calling and for your partnership.
We want to ensure guardians are proactively updated about their student’s access to education.
Chronic Absenteeism status is different from attendance rate, and different from truancy and chronic truancy.
A student is considered chronically absent when they miss 10% or more of the time enrolled in school for any reason: excused, unexcused or suspended. This is the state and federal definition of chronic absenteeism.
Chronic absenteeism is calculated by the minute – so arriving late and leaving early counts.
The message calculated the minutes of school missed and equated it to how many days that would be. Every minute matters.
The data and the chronic absenteeism status is accurate for each student.
A student either IS, IS NOT or is AT RISK OF being chronically absent. This status can change during the school year as long as the student attends all classes for the full day, every day.
Reducing chronic absenteeism is the district’s focus around attendance. This aligns with the Colorado and national Calls To Action. Last year, DPS had over 33,000 students chronically absent.
There is a newly updated, public-facing DPS Attendance Webpage with more information, including family friendly ‘How sick is too sick’ information. This includes information around what parents/guardians can do to support strong student attendance.
