COW FY25 Budget Oversight Hearing Education_Chelsea Coffin DC Policy Center

My name is Chelsea Coffin and I am the Director of the Education Policy Initiative at the D. [...] First, last school year,i 44 percent of students—an estimated 34,000 students—were chronically absent (defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year), with the majorityii of absences being unexcused.iii This is much higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 29 percent even when the definition of absenteeism now allows students to miss up to 40 percent of the school day (compared to 20 percen. [...] A larger share of high school students are chronically absent, at 60 percent in school year 2022-23.viii The share of high schoolers meeting the SAT college and career benchmark is steady at 20 percent, and has decreased for Black and economically disadvantaged students.ix Postsecondary enrollment has declined since the pandemic by 3 percentage points, and 18 out of every 100 9th graders complete. [...] Retrieved from schools-2022-23/ v Investments include $375,000 in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME)’s budget for “nudges” to improve attendance, DC School Connect Program provides school transportation for 350 students at $7.2M, and the PASS and ACE truancy interventions programs at an additional $7M that serve an estimated. [...] Retrieved from student-attendance-dc-schools viii High school rates compare to 37 percent and 38 percent of elementary and middle school students, respectively, and higher than 51 percent of high schoolers before the pandemic.