Absences, truancy still rising in Kentucky schools after COVID pandemic; lawmakers concerned

School districts on both ends of Kentucky are seeing continued downward trends in daily attendance and increases in “chronic absenteeism” following the COVID-19 pandemic, state and school officials told a legislative committee Tuesday.

According to data shared in the meeting, regions of Eastern and Western Kentucky are reporting that average daily attendance in schools is down 2% or more, and habitual truancy and chronic absenteeism is up 15%.

Fayette County Public Schools is having similar problems, Fayette Pupil Personnel Director Steve Hill and district spokesperson Dia Davidson Smith told the Herald-Leader.

A Kentucky Department of Education presentation at Tuesday’s Joint Interim Committee on Education said data in regions of Eastern and Western Kentucky show that, when comparing the 2018-2019 school year to 2022-2023,:

• Average daily attendance is about 92%, down by around 2-2.5%.

• Habitual truancy is about 25-30%, up by about 15%.

• Chronic absenteeism is around 30%, up by 15%.

Chay Ritter, director in Kentucky’s Division of District Support, said a student would be considered chronically absent, for example, if they missed 17 days in most school calendars.

Before COVID, the absentee rate was about 18.5%.

Fayette officials were not at the legislative meeting, but told the Herald-Leader average daily attendance is down 2.26% from 2018-2019 to 2022-2023. Habitual truancy is at 21.18%. Chronic absenteeism is at 29.05%.

“Fayette County Public Schools continues to work with families to support student attendance. We know the more days children are in class, on a consistent basis, the higher their academic achievement levels,” said Davidson-Smith.

“We have teams, dedicated to working with families in support of the total student school experience. ... From class competitions to school recognition programs, we are doing creative things to bring, keep and celebrate school attendance,” she said.

The picture has been slightly brighter in Fayette County in the last few weeks, district officials said.

Average daily attendance rates from August 1 to September 30 was 93.48%. That same time period for 2023-2024 was 94.29%.

“Our average daily membership is up about 214 students from this time last year, yet the excused and unexcused absences have decreased,” Hill said.

The Department of Education offers help to districts to cut down on chronic absenteeism, said Matthew Courtney, policy advisor in the Office of Continuous Improvement and Support, including webinars and tools that show which students are at highest risks to become habitual truants.

“We’ve not come back to where we were before” the depths of the pandemic, said Joey Kilburn, director of pupil personnel for the Simpson County School District.

“Some people lost their purpose for being at school,” said Kilburn. He said attitudes and habits have to change. Schools have to become a place that students want to be.

Marci Prater, director of pupil personnel for the Boyd County School District, said that in districts that included Carter, Boyd, Paintsville Independent, Ashland Independent, Raceland Independent, Barren, Butler, Logan and Simpson, average daily attendance was down about 2%. There was a significant rise in truancy as well as an increase in chronic absenteeism.

Classrooms have been impacted since students returned from pandemic schools closures, Prater said.

State Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, said he and Education Committee co-chair Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, are very concerned about the situation.

“We are going to continue this conversation,” Tipton said.