The statewide attendance rate for K-12 public school students in the 2024-2025 school year improved for the third year in a row to 91.3%, which is an increase of 0.5% from the 2023-24 rate of 90.8%, according to a press release on Thursday from the Michigan Department of Education. The percentage of students who were chronically absent–those who missed at least 10% of days in school–decreased by 1.6 points, totaling 27.9%.​

At Tuesday’s meeting, Dr. Delsa Chapman, deputy superintendent of the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) Division of Assessment, School Improvement, and Systems Support, presented information about how local school districts have improved their attendance and what MDE has done to support them. Tom Howell, director of Michigan’s Center for Educational Performance and Information, presented numbers that show the percentage of students going to school is increasing.

Efforts that help to increase student attendance and engagement include the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System​, a dropout prevention program. MDE coaches train local school district staff to implement the program in their schools.

Out of 263 districts using the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System, 171 increased their attendance rates, 169 improved their chronic absenteeism rate, and 149 improved both rates, Chapman said in the release.

During the meeting, she explained steps that two districts, Flint Community Schools and Lawrence Public Schools, have taken to improve their attendance.

Flint’s efforts have included using the early warning system in schools district-wide, engaging families along with local agencies to provide support and resources for home and school, the “Strive for Five” City-Wide Attendance Campaign, and using student success coordinators to provide support to children and families. The district’s attendance rate improved from 76.6% in 2023-2024 to 78.3% last school year.

Lawrence, located in Van Buren County in West Michigan, has addressed attendance by forming partnerships with businesses and industries to improve housing opportunities, providing more support staff for direct student services to monitor absences, and using social media to engage students and families. The district improved its attendance rate from 93.1% in the 2023-24 school year to 94.1% in the 2024-25 school year.