During the Leon County School Board retreat, school officials provided an update on the problem with absenteeism. Data provided by officials showed that during the first nine weeks of the 2023-24 school year, 27.3% of LCS students were chronically absent, see table below.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as any student that misses 10% or more of schooling each year.
However, during the second nine weeks of 2023-24, the number of chronically absent students increased to 36.5%.
The second table provided below shows that that over 42% of high school students (grades 9-12) were chronically absent.
Back in October, Tallahassee Reports did a story comparing chronic absenteeism in Leon County compared to the state average. The numbers indicated that in 2022 approximately 23% of students were chronically absent. The data also showed that beginning in 2018, the number of chronically absent students in Leon County surpassed the state average.
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