D.C. students raise truancy rate

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More students this year have been absent from D.C. high schools than last year, with one in four schools reporting attendance rates less than 75 percent, according to preliminary attendance numbers from the school system.

The monthly attendance reports obtained by The Washington Times also show that the percentage of students absent from the District's high schools has increased every month since classes began in late August.

The average overall attendance rate for the city's 16 high schools in December was 82.5 percent, down from 83.2 percent at the same time last year. The attendance rate was 91.6 percent for September, compared with 92.1 percent in September 2006.

The District finished the 2006-07 school year with a high school attendance rate of 83.1 percent.

Montgomery County schools reported a 94.8 percent high school attendance rate last year. Maryland State Board of Education figures put the Prince George's County's high school attendance rate last year at 88.1 percent.

Virginia Board of Education statistics showed the attendance rate was 95 percent at Fairfax County secondary schools last year and 92 percent at Arlington County secondary schools.

At four of the District's 16 high schools last month, a quarter or more of students were absent on any given day.

At Dunbar High School in Northwest, average attendance in December was 68 percent — meaning that about 314 of the school's 855 students were absent on an average day.

In December 2006, attendance at Dunbar was 75.8 percent.

The other schools where attendance fell below 75 percent last month were Ballou in Southeast and Spingarn and H.D. Woodson in Northeast. The figures at Woodson and Ballou rose slightly from the December 2006 attendance numbers.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said attendance in city schools will improve as schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee implements academic reforms.

"Our charge to the chancellor is to go 100 miles per hour and make the changes as quickly as possible," said Mr. Fenty, a Democrat. "There are things that need to be changed to motivate children to come to school, and I think the chancellor is doing that."

Schools spokeswoman Mafara Hobson agreed, saying there are "no programs or schools that offer academic instruction that's tailored around specific student interests or needs."

She also said that Mrs. Rhee did not institute any initiatives aimed at improving attendance this year.

Before the school year started, Mrs. Rhee asked the Metropolitan Police Department to enforce truancy laws aggressively starting the first day of class to combat the historically high numbers of students who are labeled chronically truant after having at least 15 unexcused absences.

Metropolitan Police had picked up 2,935 truant students by the end of December, according to preliminary numbers from the department.

Preliminary numbers show that 1,023 students, or about 2 percent of the 49,000-student system, had been labeled chronically truant by Nov. 5. More recent figures will not be available until next month, Miss Hobson said.

Poor attendance and unreliable student record keeping have plagued the system, though Mrs. Rhee's predecessor, Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, made modest gains in increasing attendance during his roughly three-year tenure.

Messages left with several high school principals to confirm the school system's attendance figures were not returned.