About a quarter of all public school students in the state are considered “chronically absent,” meaning they miss 10% of instructional days or more.
To combat that, four North Carolina representatives introduced a bill that would establish a pilot program testing attendance intervention systems.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction would be tasked with finding a vendor with a “research-proven” solution and implementing those strategies in a set of schools within one district.
The draft legislation states that all public school systems will be able to apply, but that preference should be given to those with above-average chronic absenteeism rates.
The bill would appropriate $75,000 to NCDPI from the state’s General Fund to implement the pilot. Officials would also provide a report on the outcomes to legislators and make recommendations for statewide expansion.
The legislation is currently in the House Committee on Appropriations.