Michigan School Attendance Numbers Improve for Second Year in a Row

LANSING – The statewide school attendance rate and chronic absenteeism rate both improved last year, according to numbers released today by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).

The 2023-24 school year was the second consecutive year that both the attendance and chronic absenteeism rates improved in Michigan. During the 2022-23 school year, Michigan led the United States in recovering from pandemic-related increases in chronic school absenteeism.

Data released today show the statewide attendance rate among Michigan students increased by 3/10 of a percentage point from the year before, from 90.5% to 90.8%. The chronic absenteeism rate declined by 1.3 percentage points, from 30.8% to 29.5%. Chronic absenteeism for a student is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year – roughly two school days a month – for any reason.

“Efforts by Michigan school staff, students, and parents continue to help improve attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism,” said State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice. “Our students need to attend school regularly to maximize their school experiences. Despite our progress, far too many students are chronically absent. We need to work together to redouble our efforts and remove barriers to school attendance.”

Local school districts have engaged in myriad efforts to improve attendance rates as they emerged from the pandemic and the associated challenges, including, but not limited to, calls to parents, conferences with families, mental health interventions, and even door-to-door outreach to visit students’ homes to help reacclimate children to coming to school more frequently.

“We must continue to improve attendance to strongly address Goal 5 of Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan, to increase the percentage of students who graduate from high school,” said Dr. Delsa Chapman, deputy superintendent of the MDE Division of Assessment, School Improvement, and Systems Support. “Credit for the improvements in attendance goes to our local school districts.”

The Center for Educational Performance and Information has posted statewide results on MI School Data (mischooldata.org), Michigan’s official education data portal. Statewide data and data for specific local schools can be found on the MI School Data Student Attendance page.

Among the other highlights in the 2023-24 data:

• Chronic absenteeism decreased in all grades.
• Chronic absenteeism decreased among most racial and ethnic groups, including students who are African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Hispanic, white, and two or more races.
• Chronic absenteeism for students who are economically disadvantaged decreased 1.7 percentage points last year after an 8.6 percentage point decline the year before, but at 40.1% remained much higher than for the rest of the student population.

Chronic absenteeism fell 7.7 percentage points during the 2022-23 school year compared to the year before, the biggest improvement from among 42 states and the District of Columbia that released 2022-23 absenteeism data, the think tank FutureEd at Georgetown University found. In the last two years, the statewide attendance rate rose from 88.8% in 2021-22 to 90.8% in 2023-24, an increase of 2 percentage points. During the same period, the chronic absenteeism rate declined from 38.5% in 2021-22 to 29.5% in 2023-24, a decrease of 9 percentage points.

In addition to the impactful efforts by local school districts, MDE has aided local school districts in a variety of ways. Efforts have included:

• Using strategies based on research to meet the individual needs of the whole child at all achievement levels through what’s called Michigan’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports. These strategies interconnect the education, health, and human services systems to support successful learners, schools, centers, and community outcomes.
• Implementing an early intervention dropout prevention program called the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System that MDE provides to schools. This system is a seven-step process of examining data and making decisions about supports and interventions to help students get back on track for graduation and success. MDE trains and certifies coaches who provide intervention and monitoring training across the state.
• Participating in Attendance Works’ national project to support local districts in addressing chronic absenteeism using action research.

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