The Indiana Department of Education released a new statewide attendance dashboard to the public Friday. The IDOE said it hopes making the information widely available will raise awareness about the importance of school attendance and help decrease chronic absenteeism.
The rate of chronically absent students in Indiana decreased slightly to 17.8 percent this year, but Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said the state still has a long way to go.
“We need everyone working together to make sure students are in school and we continue to improve those numbers,” she said at the September State Board of Education meeting.
IDOE said students do best when they have at least a 94 percent attendance rate.
The new dashboard displays attendance data at the school, grade and district levels. It also shows data for specific student populations and excused versus unexcused absences.
READ MORE: Indiana school absenteeism rates improve. State announces new dashboard for the fall
Join the conversation and sign up for the Indiana Two-Way . Text "Indiana" to 765-275-1120. Your comments and questions in response to our weekly text help us find the answers you need on statewide issues.
Officials said having access to the data will help communities understand school attendance across the state, set goals for improved attendance and evaluate the impact of attendance policies.
John Keller is IDOE’s chief information officer. At the State Board of Education's September meeting, he said it is crucial that everyone have access to this data.
“The public version is so critical, right, because you can’t have the conversations about what’s going on without all the members of the public having access to that,” he said.
The dashboard is available on the state’s website.
Kirsten is our education reporter. Contact her at kadair@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @kirsten_adair .
