Michigan’s K-12 Attendance, 2026 State Budget Discussed at State Board of Education Meeting

Absence Rate Drops in Districts Such as Flint, Lawrence

LANSING – Student attendance improvements in Michigan and how the recently approved 2026 state school aid budget will affect children were highlighted at this month’s State Board of Education meeting.

Student attendance

The statewide attendance rate for K-12 public school students in the 2024-25 school year improved for the third year in a row to 91.3%, according to recently released data, an increase of 0.5% from the 2023-24 rate of 90.8%. The percentage of students who were chronically absent—those who missed atleast 10% of their days in school—decreased by 1.6 points to 27.9%.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Dr. Delsa Chapman, deputy superintendent of the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) Division of Assessment, School Improvement, and Systems Support, presented information about how local school districts have improved their attendance and what MDE has done to support them. Tom Howell, director of Michigan’s Center for Educational Performance and Information, presented numbers that show the percentage of students going to school is increasing.

Efforts that help to increase student attendance and engagement include the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System, a dropout prevention program. MDE coaches train local school district staff to implement the program in their schools.

Out of 263 districts using the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System, 171 increased their attendance rates, 169 improved their chronic absenteeism rate and 149 improved both rates, Chapman said.

During the meeting, she shared what two districts, Flint Community Schools and Lawrence Public Schools, have done to improve their attendance.

Flint’s efforts have included using the early warning system in schools district-wide, engaging families along with local agencies to provide support and resources for home and school, the “Strive for Five” City-Wide Attendance Campaign, and using student success coordinators to provide support to children and families. The district’s attendance rate improved from 76.6% in 2023-24 to 78.3% last school year.

Lawrence, located in Van Buren County in West Michigan, has addressed attendance by forming partnerships with businesses and industries to improve housing opportunities, providing more support staff for direct student services to monitor absences, and using social media to engage students and families. The district improved its attendance rate from 93.1% in the 2023-24 school year to 94.1% in the 2024-25 school year.

State school aid budget

Dr. Diane Golzynski, deputy superintendent for business, health, and library services at MDE, presented information about the state 2026 budget, along with Spencer Simmons, director of the MDE Office of Financial Management; and Olivia Ponte, legislative liaison for MDE.

Their presentation included an update on how the budget for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2026, will help with efforts to improve student literacy, specifically as it relates to four proposals for which MDE has advocated. The four initiatives are:

• High-quality early literacy materials. The budget includes a continuation of funding by providing an additional $64.4 million to pay for high-quality early literacy series and materials, early literacy intervention materials and professional development.

• Low class sizes in high-poverty grades K-3 classrooms. The budget funds a new $65 million pilot program to lower pupil-to-teacher ratios in high-poverty classrooms in grades K-3. The four pilot districts are Benton Harbor Area Schools, Flint Community Schools, the Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System and the Wayne-Westland Community School District. The budget also allows districts that receive at-risk funding to use up to 30% of the funding to reduce teacher-pupil ratios in grades K-3.
• Mandatory Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training on the Science of Reading for K-5 classroom teachers. The legislature provided an additional $10 million for the training.
• More in-person student instructional time. The budget eliminates permission for districts to count up to 15 virtual instructional days toward the required number of annual school days. MDE also has pushed for the reversal of previous legislative action that allows districts to count seven teacher professional development days as instructional days, however, the budget makes no change in that area.

Among other things, the budget also includes funding for:

• Public school students to continue receiving school meals at no cost to their parents.
• Providing opportunities for more students to enroll in Career and Technical Education programs that prepare them for high-wage and high-skills careers.
• A 4.6% increase in the per pupil foundation allowance that raises it to $10,050 per student.

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