A new study by the Indiana Partnerships Centershows a significant number of Hoosier public school students are chronically absent from school.
Data in the study, conducted by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policyat Indiana University, shows about 55,000 Hoosier students attending public schools miss too much school. That data doesn’t include the students who miss school because of suspensions.
Terry Spradlin is the director of the center. He says not including those days out of school can give a misleading picture of whether a school has attendance problems.
"Kids who are already in trouble, may be getting in even deeper as they are missing so much school and that may go unnoticed because, again, how the state excuses or excludes suspensions from attendance and absence data. That needs to be corrected."
The study also shows a direct link between low attendance rates in middle school and graduation rates across income levels. The attendance data was gathered over a seven year period.