A new statewide task force has been created to address the growing number of Arizona students who are chronically absent.
In 2022, 34 % of Arizona students were identified as chronically absent. That’s up from 14 % in 2019.
A student is considered chronically absent when they miss more than 10% of a school’s calendar year for any reason, excused or unexcused. That’s about 18 days or more in a typical school year.
Lori Masseur is director of early learning with Read On Arizona, which is leading the new effort.
She says the task force will review data and confer with national experts to come up with some best practices to reduce chronic absences.
“But also, when we look at the data, we’re always looking at the prior year data," she said. "So how do we support schools and teams to look at their data in real time to be proactive before children get to missing 10% or more of the school year," Masseur said.
The task force includes leaders from the Governor’s Office, school districts, and state agencies.
