While the state is making progress on truancy, it still has quite a ways to go. The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana says statewide, the truancy rate – that is, five or more unexcused absences in a semester – is more than 40%. PAR President Steven Procopio says the truancy rate varies by parish, and it varies greatly within each region and demographic.
“You have Tensas Parish, which has one of the highest rates, a relatively poor parish. But then East Carroll, one of the best truancy rates, so it’s hard to find an immediate connection,” Procopio said.
Procopio says the Louisiana Department of Education and BESE are working on a strategy to boost student attendance, whether it be enforcement, encouragement or both.
“Like, ‘Oh, if you miss so many days, then you have some punishment,’ as opposed to ‘What’s the reason why these people aren’t making it, and see if we can try and help them?’ And so that seems to be what people are working on now, and it seems to be moving the ball a little bit,” Procopio said.
Procopio says it’s a challenge to determine where Louisiana ranks nationally, since each state defines truancy differently. However, when applying the national definition of chronic absenteeism – absent for more than 10% of all class time, whether excused or unexcused – Louisiana doesn’t do too badly.
“Or, basically about the national average in terms of this chronic absenteeism. And that’s about 22.5%,” Procopio noted.
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