Michigan schools rank among nation’s worst for chronic absenteeism, study shows

Michigan's students struggled far more after the pandemic began to consistently show up to school, causing the state's chronic absenteeism rate to soar to one of the highest in the nation.

Michigan ranked fourth for chronic absenteeism out of 40 states and the District of Columbia, trailing behind Alaska, Washington, D.C., and New Mexico, according to data compiled and analyzed by Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee in partnership with The Associated Press. Before the pandemic, the state's chronic absenteeism rate was eighth highest in the nation.

Michigan has seen its chronic absenteeism rate increase from nearly 20% in the 2018-19 school year to 39% in the 2021-22 school year, which means 39% of public school students missed 10% or more of the 180-day school year. More than 545,000 students in Michigan were counted as chronically absent.

It's not clear why Michigan's spike was so dramatic: Nationwide, the average chronic absenteeism rate for K-12 public school students increased by 14 percentage points, from 15% in the 2018-19 school year to 28% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Stanford analysis.

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State data shows that the rates increased significantly for Black students and low-income students, in particular, illustrating the depths of public school system inequities in Michigan. Nearly 60% of Black students and 50% of low-income students were chronically absent in the 2021-22 school year, up from 39% and 29% in 2018-19. Numbers from the year 2021-22 are the most recently available. The state expects to update its data for the 2022-23 school year in the fall. The Stanford analysis excluded states with a different definition for chronic absenteeism.

Pamela Pugh, president of the Michigan State Board of Education and a U.S. Senate candidate, said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press that the high rate was likely due to a perfect storm of factors affecting attendance: Crumbling school buildings, inadequate transportation to schools and an increase in mental health concerns.

"We know we have a long way to go," Pugh said. "We're going to have to constantly look at ways to be able to prioritize our children's school budget."

Dee, the Stanford professor, also said that a culmination of education access issues exacerbated by the pandemic likely contributed to the rise.

"Just a deterioration of a student's psychological engagement in their own learning may play a role," Dee said.

In Detroit, in particular, high chronic absenteeism rates are not new, remaining a constant puzzle for school administrators, teachers and parents/caregivers to address. The Detroit Public Schools Community District's chronic absenteeism rate rocketed from about 54% of students in the 2019-20 school year to 77% in the 2021-22 school year. Numbers from 2022-23 shared by Superintendent Nikolai Vitti in a July board meeting show that the rate has decreased since to 68%, still a far cry from pre-pandemic numbers.

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A Chalkbeat Detroit examination of chronic absenteeism found a flawed transportation system contributes to the city's high absenteeism rates and found that the state, as a punitive measure against truancy, can take away public assistance from its poorest families who struggle to get children to school.

Vitti said in an interview on Thursday that chronic absenteeism remains a persistent challenge for Detroit Public Schools, but is key in improving how students excel at school.

"We know that if our students come to school consistently, they will learn at higher levels," he said.

Sarah Lenhoff, a professor at Wayne State University who leads research on chronic absenteeism in Detroit, said Michigan is home to several cities, including Flint, Detroit and Grand Rapids, that struggle to get kids to school consistently. But she also cautioned that the data used in the study is from a unique time, when schools in Michigan were still intermittently opening and closing due to the pandemic, and when students had to quarantine at home on school days.

"I think of this data as being reflective of a very unique time period," she said, referring to the impact of the pandemic. "I think we're kind of waiting to see how things play out for '22-'23."

The data out of Detroit for the most recent school year, she said, raises questions around why the district is still experiencing high rates, now that students are consistently back in-person. She speculated that the reason may be that students still feel more disconnected from school, and may be discouraged to go back if they haven't caught up.

'"I think it could be part of it, the lasting effects of COVID that we're just now kind of seeing play out in terms of student mental health, in terms of engagement in school," she said. "We know that kids who are behind in school also are less likely to show up because they're struggling."

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Statewide, both Pugh, a spokeswoman from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Office and a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education said that the latest state budget invests more funding in strategies to tackle chronic absenteeism in schools, including a $328 million increase for mental health and school safety initiatives, $160 million for free school meals for all students and $50 million to improve school facilities.

Lenhoff added that schools will need to think outside the box to come up with solutions tailored to meet chronically absent student needs, which can be complex, especially if they're experiencing homelessness or are moving through the foster care system. That means several systems at once may need to come together, beyond a school district.

For example: Many students in Detroit don't feel safe walking through their neighborhood to school, even if they live close. The city could help by ensuring streetlights are working and improving public safety.

"Where a lot of these barriers are coming from outside of the school, then that means that cities and social service agencies need to be at the table to think about how to improve conditions for getting to school," she said.

Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan has 1 of the highest chronic absenteeism rates in nation