Absenteeism among Hoosier students is down, as reported last month by the Indiana Department of Education. And while that’s encouraging, 219,000 children — 18% of students — in kindergarten through 12th grade were reported as chronically absent in the 2023-24 school year. That means they missed at least 18 days of school.
A Sept. 12 story by Indiana Capital Chronicle’s Casey Smith detailed the improved — but still staggering — number of students absent in the 2023-24 school year.
While state officials praised the steady decline in numbers — 21.1% of children were chronically absent in 2021, compared to 19.2% in 2023 — it’s concerning that so many students are missing lessons that would help shape their future.
A key issue for the Indiana Legislature in the spring was absenteeism, resulting in a law that requires schools to intervene if a student has five unexcused absences. For those students, the school must create an attendance plan. However, that law pertains only to those in K-sixth grades. The author of that bill, Stacy Donato, R-Logansport, asked the legislature to study best practices for older students — those in high school — who miss multiple days of school.
The new law requires schools to meet with parents of students who miss five or more unexcused days. Schools must also report to the local prosecutor any students who miss 10 or more days without an excuse.
The Kokomo Tribune’s Spencer Durham reported in May that educators believe younger learners suffer the most when important lessons are missed in their developmental years.
“When little ones miss, continuously miss, it’s hard for them to get into the deep dive of their skills,” said Shelly Crozier, a kindergarten teacher at Howard Elementary in Kokomo. “You’re all of a sudden, as an educator … playing catch up.”
Crozier emphasizes school attendance when talking to parents. She’s not the only one who takes a personal approach to getting children to show up consistently.
In the Indiana Capital Chronicle report, John Keller, the IDOE’s chief information officer, said state officials have shifted attention from a school-focused look at attendance to honing in on individual students.
That’s a lot of work for school officials, in addition to their already full schedules. However, for Tipton Community Schools, which this school year implemented a system to build relationships with parents and guardians, it’s working.
“The idea is more communication; collaboration is how we get kids to school,” said Scott Jaworski, assistant superintendent. “Having that dialogue with parents is key. A lot of the solutions aren’t difficult. We just need to know the root cause.”
Tipton Superintendent Ryan Glaze said principals know why most kids are absent on a given day.
Durham reported that at Howard Elementary, Principal Jordan Nelson and the school resource officer have picked kids up for school when parents don’t have a way to get their child there.
The first step to ensure success for Hoosier students is making sure they get to school.
“Students who are coming to school 94% of the time are doing better, significantly,” Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said in the Capital Chronicle article. “As a parent or a grandparent or whatever, that 94% or more really, really matters. Teachers could have told us this before we ran the data. … But running the data, it is very clear students need to be in the classroom in order to make the greatest performance.”
Hopefully, with help from local educators, parents can understand the importance of education in their child’s life. And while an attendance increase in Hoosier schools is good, clearly more work needs to be done. That means lawmakers should keep education a main focus when they meet again in 2025 at the Statehouse.
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