Palouse schools rank high in state for chronic absenteeism

Washington has been ranked second-worst in the nation for its number of chronically absent students, a news release from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction says, and some local school districts could be contributing to that.

According to the data, Palouse School District had one of the highest chronic absenteeism rates in the state for the 2015-16 school year, with an average of 31.3 percent of students reported as chronically absent.

The term "chronically absent" means a student has missed 10 percent or more of their school days, equaling 18 days in a year or two days per month. Palouse's sister district, Garfield, was at 23.9 percent.

Principal Mike Jones presides over Gar-Pal High School, a collaborative high school attended by students in grades nine through 12 from both Garfield and Palouse.

Jones told the Daily News on Friday he was not aware of the report and questioned whether it considered excused or unexcused absences in its calculations. A representative of OSPI said the study looked solely at unexcused absences.

After further review of the report, Jones said "75 percent or more" of the school's students are involved in curricular and extracurricular activities, which generate absences that Jones said would count as excused. He claimed the number of unexcused absences at the school are minimal - less than 5 percent of the student body.

"We continue to work diligently with students and families to provide a well-rounded education for all of our students and continue to monitor student absences as they impact student learning," Jones said.

Palouse was tied for the third highest chronic absenteeism rate in the Educational Service District 101.

Other local districts fared closer to the state's chronic absentee average.

Pullman School District was at 12.5 percent. Colton was at 5.7 percent. Colfax was at 5.2 percent.

The state's average is 16.7 percent, up 0.7 percent from the 2014-15 school year.

According to the OSPI, students who are chronically absent in kindergarten are considerably less likely to be able to read at grade-level by third grade. Additionally, chronically absent ninth graders are more likely to fail at least one core course such as math, English or science.

"About 21 percent of our students are not graduating high school, and absenteeism plays a huge role in that," said Chris Reykdal, superintendent of public instruction.

According to OSPI, districts that have successfully lowered their absenteeism rates have done so by using data to catch absences before they add up, building relationships with students and their families and engaging them early and often, communicating the school's attendance expectations, creating community partnerships and raising awareness of the impacts of chronic absenteeism.

Taylor Nadauld can be reached at (208) 883-4630, by email to tnadauld@dnews.com and on Twitter @tnadauldarg.