April will mark nine years of state lawmakers pushing to transform education through an overhaul known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. The reform plan includes a wide variety of initiatives, from publicly funding pre-K to attracting high-quality teachers to providing poverty grants for schools with a high share of low-income students.

But one thing appears to be missing from the Blueprint, or at least is not directly addressed: kids chronically missing school.

Those responsible for implementing the Blueprint say the legislation includes various pots of money that can be used to target absenteeism. But education experts and state lawmakers say there’s been little attention paid to the issue.

Of all 24 Maryland jurisdictions, Baltimore City had the worst rate of chronic absenteeism, defined as missing at least 10% of the total days of enrollment at a particular school, for the 2022-2023 school year: 54% (which has since declined to 49% this school year). A deeper look at the numbers shows 11% of all Baltimore City students missed at least a third of the 2022-2023 school year, per previous reporting by The Baltimore Sun.

Chronic absenteeism isn’t just a Baltimore issue, however. It’s a statewide problem.

The second highest rate in the 2022-2023 school year was Dorchester County, with 42% chronically absent. Next were Somerset and Allegany counties, with 37%. The lowest rate was Howard County — 18%, according to data from the Maryland State Department of Education.

“Baltimore City’s chronic absenteeism is astronomical, but it’s bad all over the state,” said Maryland Sen. Jill Carter, a Democrat representing Baltimore.

‘Outrageous’ lack of action

The “Kirwan Commission” tasked with studying statewide education reform starting in 2016, published a series of reports from 2018 to 2020 that include almost no discussion of student absenteeism throughout hundreds of pages, except for a few passing references. The reports note, for example, that the Blueprint’s Independent Oversight Board should analyze data on student outcomes “such as absenteeism” and that some funding can be used for “improving student attendance.”

Rachel Hise, executive director of the Blueprint’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said chronic absenteeism “has been a focus” throughout the Kirwan Commission and implementation of the Blueprint. She added chronic absenteeism has become “a more urgent focus” since the COVID-19 pandemic, when absenteeism rapidly increased. In 2019, the statewide chronic absenteeism rate was about 20%, compared with 30% in the 2022-2023 school year.

But lawmakers told The Sun absenteeism hasn’t been a major point of discussion. Carter said it wasn’t on her radar until a briefing earlier this year.

“I always knew and heard there are a lot of children that don’t go to school … But until I saw those numbers, I really didn’t maybe understand the urgency,” she said. “This is probably the most significant problem that we’re facing right now with our schools. You can’t educate children that aren’t there.”

Carter proposed a resolution in the last legislative session to add a section or unit within the state’s education department dedicated to addressing truancy. The resolution didn’t pass. This year, she may submit it as a bill.

“This chronic absenteeism has to be a top priority, and it’s really outrageous that we didn’t take any action last year, not just on my resolution, but on anything. We did nothing about it,” she said.

The Blueprint has five pillars, none of which are focused on chronic absenteeism. Still, local education agencies can use some of their Blueprint funds to help keep kids in school, Hise said. That includes per-pupil “Foundation” funding, in addition to funding for multilingual learners and special education, and “Concentration of Poverty” funds for schools with a certain percentage of low-income students.

The state is aiming to cut chronic absenteeism in half over the course of three years, Hise said, from 30% in 2022-2023 to 15% in 2025-2026.

Hise added that a lot of the effort to address chronic absenteeism will happen at the local, not state, level.

Republican state Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, who represents Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties, said chronic absenteeism is better handled by individual districts and not at the state level, given the disparate impacts of absenteeism in different areas.

“I would want my local school systems to have flexibility to deal with that individual issue in their own individual county, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all [approach],” she said.

But questions remain as to whether a statewide problem deserves a statewide solution.

‘Tough decisions’

In addition to the resolution she proposed, Carter plans to submit a proposal requiring increased efforts by school outreach workers to determine where students are, why they’re not coming to school and what can be done to help them.

“You’ve got to be going out to meet and reach these families,” Carter said. “You can’t be sitting in the school building or sitting somewhere else and get this problem fixed.”

The city has attendance teams and vendors that help with chronic absenteeism, the chief of Baltimore City Public Schools previously told The Sun.

Maryland Senator Antonio Hayes, a Democrat representing Baltimore City, said he hasn’t heard people talk about chronic absenteeism when it comes to discussions about the Blueprint.

Hayes said he’s advocated for school-based health centers, saying they help reduce chronic absenteeism for kids with chronic diseases like asthma or other health issues.

“I think that’s what the Blueprint was about, to find other wraparound services to help young people be more successful,” he said.

But Hayes noted lawmakers have “tough decisions” about how they’ll afford this year’s state budget, and he hopes community school coordinators who arrange wraparound services for students don’t end up on the chopping block.

A less expensive proposal: adjusting school start times. Republican Del. April Miller, who represents Frederick County, introduced a bill last year requiring that high schoolers start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schoolers no earlier than 8 a.m.

Another proposal from Republican Del. April Rose, who represents Frederick and Carroll counties, would require that school funding be based on quarterly, not annual, enrollment counts.

“Unless you do something definitive to track and make sure that kids are actually in school and doing their work, then [absenteeism] is not going to magically go away,” she said.

The Baltimore Sun did not receive a response to multiple requests for comment from State Sen. Mary Washington, a Democrat who chairs the senate’s education subcommittee and represents Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

How do we pay for it?

How to pay for it all is a major part of the equation, said Ellie Mitchell, who serves on one of the Blueprint advisory boards and is the director of MD Out of School Time Network.

“We’re already bankrupting ourselves, practically, to pay for the Blueprint as it is,” she said.

But Mitchell added that she believes the Blueprint can reduce chronic absenteeism through its funding for schools with a large share of low-income students. Blueprint funding for behavioral health could help as well, she said.

Despite the budget difficulties, she believes the Blueprint needs more funding, not less.

“I fully support the Blueprint strategies, and we need to do more to address the gaps that continue to challenge our public schools,” she said.

Questions about Blueprint affordability continue percolating against the backdrop of an impending $2.7 billion state deficit that lawmakers will grapple with in the upcoming legislative session.

Carozza, the Republican state senator, is blunt: “There will not be enough state money to fully implement the Blueprint at the local level.”

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