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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Department of Education and Workforce Director Stephen Dackin have announced the launch of a statewide Attendance Dashboard in an effort to combat chronic absenteeism in K-12 public schools. 

Over 25% of Ohio students were chronically absent last year, missing nearly one month of school. 

A student is considered chronically absent in Ohio when they miss at least 10% of the minimum number of hours required in the school year, including excused and unexcused absences, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

The dashboard announced last week is an that compiles self-reported data from districts and schools across the state, aiming to assist administrators, parents, and taxpayers in identifying trends in attendance patterns down to the grade level.

It will update weekly as more schools report their data. 

The dashboard is organized on a trend line that allows users to see the weekly percentage of statewide absenteeism. It can be viewed from the district down to grade levels of individual schools, with customizable features comparing specific absentee rates.

Dackin said this feature was designed with the intention of allowing districts to learn from each by these comparisons. 

The launch comes after DeWine鈥檚 emphasis on improving the lives of children during his address. During his final stretch in office, the dashboard is seemingly another step towards rounding out his agenda. 

鈥淲hen students are not in school they are not learning, and the consequences are significant,鈥� DeWine said. 鈥淐hronic absence isn鈥檛 just a school problem, it is a community problem, it is a state problem. It is also a parent problem.鈥�  

Ohio is the second state to have a system that updates so frequently, Dackin said.

While districts and schools are not mandated to share their data, he said the more information that is provided will allow administrators to identify the root causes of chronic absenteeism, as they can widely differ between grade levels.  

鈥淭his helps communities understand the interventions needed at a particular grade level, and what kind of supports would be necessary based on the age group of young people,鈥� Dackin said. 

As of last week, 24% of Ohio鈥檚 districts and schools鈥� data is unreported, including Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland Public School Districts, who have some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism.

鈥淲e鈥檙e working actually with a lot of those districts,鈥� Dackin said. 鈥淲e do not have a unified data system in this state, so one of the challenges we have is there are different data systems that have to talk to this system. Many of these 24% districts, we are actively working with them to solve and resolve those technical problems.鈥�

DeWine pointed to East Cleveland City Schools as a prime example of the benefits of attendance tracking, who used its attendance data to proactively reach out to chronically absent students and their families, which reduced its chronic absenteeism by over 10%.

He said the tracking also helped them identify key reasons why students were absent, including transportation barriers, health issues and difficult home situations.  

鈥淲e urge every school in Ohio to join the dashboard,鈥� DeWine said. 鈥淭he more data each school and community have the more innovative and collaborative they can be to solve this huge problem in Ohio.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: [email protected].

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