Partway through her slideshow, Dr. Heidi Schumacher displayed a bar chart of eight high schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. It showed the percentages of students who have missed so much school that they are considered chronically absent. The numbers ranged from 60.2% to 81.9%.
“That effectively means the norm of everyday attendance has collapsed,” said Schumacher, an expert in student absenteeism.
In Louisiana, a student is counted as chronically absent if they miss 10% of school. For most schools that is roughly 18 days a year, or two days a month. Nearly half the students in East Baton Rouge high schools, 47.4%, earn that label…