Student Attendance Data for 2007-2008

Last year, the School Board had to make a decision on whether or not Good Friday should be a day off for students in the school calendar. The Board could not make Good Friday a student holiday based on religious beliefs. The decision had to be made based on the percent of students and/or teachers in attendance on the day in question. Based on the School Board’s discussion, it was decided to do an analysis of all school days, comparing the number of students enrolled each day and the number of students absent each day. The analysis was also done by school and by area. The attendance by school for each school day is available upon request.

Findings include the following:

Student attendance is highest during the first two weeks of the school year.

Student attendance shows a pattern of regular variation over the week with higher attendance on Monday and lower attendance on Friday.

For the most part, attendance is above 90% at our sites.

The last school days before the Thanksgiving and Winter Holiday break have low attendance.

Attendance in Area 5 is higher than in most other areas, while attendance in Area 7 is the lowest.

Among the different site types, elementary schools have the highest attendance and career and exceptional centers have the lowest attendance.

On Friday, March 21, 2008 (Good Friday), the average attendance rate was 57% at elementary schools, 33% at middle schools, 20% at high schools, 16.6% at career centers, and 49% at exceptional centers. Overall, approximately 60% of students were absent on Friday, March 21, 2008.

The graph showing 2007-2008 attendance by site type is provided. Because Good Friday was the day in question, we have highlighted the area between March 14 and March 28, 2008.

The analysis does not address the Strategic Measurable Goals.

The cost of the analysis is in personnel time and programming time.

The measure of success of this particular analysis is whether or not the School Board can use the information for decision making.