More than 4,600 elementary and middle school students who missed 60 days of school or more during the 2021-2022 school year were promoted to the next grade level — nearly 9% of promoted students — according to court data obtained by FOX45 News and The Baltimore Sun. During the 2022-’23 school year, more than 3,200 such students were promoted, representing 6% of the promoted population.

At the high school level, 1,890 students who missed 60 days or more of school were promoted to the next level in the 2023-’23 school year — 12% of high school students passed — the data show. The year before, 1,851 high school students who fit that category were passed (also 12% of the total passed).

These numbers are “alarming,” said Hedy Chang, the Executive Director of Attendance Works, a national non-profit devoted to understanding how school attendance affects student learning. “Attendance is crucial to a child’s social well-being, health and academic achievement.”

The attendance data was generated from a lawsuit filed by Baltimore resident Jovani Patterson against the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. In the lawsuit — which is financially supported by David Smith, co-owner of The Sun and executive chairman of Sinclair, Inc., the parent company of Fox45 News — Patterson alleges that Baltimore City Schools has failed to properly educate generations of students.

A motion to intervene in that lawsuit was filed last month on behalf of Fox45 News and The Sun, seeking to unseal school attendance records and other documents submitted as “confidential.” The attendance records have now been unsealed.

The data show that during the 2021-22 school year, out of 54,906 elementary and middle school students, 4,828 of them missed 60 school days or more. Yet nearly 97% (4,671) of those chronically absent students were promoted to the next grade. The following school year (2022-’23), a similar story: Of 54,204 elementary and middle school students, 3,308 missed 60 school days or more, and 98% (3,256) of them were promoted.

In Maryland, schools are required by law to have 180 instructional days in a school year. If a student misses 10% of the school year, which in most cases is 18 days, that student is considered chronically absent. Chang says missing this amount of class time puts students “at risk” of falling behind, not being able to catch up, and dropping out.

“But it’s more than that because school is also where we connect with peers, where we gain those habits of success, like showing up when things are tough. That allows us to do well when we eventually are in the workplace,” Chang explained.

Baltimore City Public Schools does not have an attendance requirement in order for students to pass a grade level or graduate. Historically, the district has had some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in Maryland.

In the ’21-’22 school year, 3,550 students from pre-K through high school missed at least half the school year (90 days), and 1,381 of those students still moved to the next grade. In the ’22-’23 school year, 4,960 students missed at least half the year, and 2,075 of them were promoted.

“I think it’s incredibly hard for a kid who’s missing 60 or 90 days of school to get a proper education,” Chang said.

In the 2021-’22 school year, 369 students districtwide missed 170 school days or more. Of those 369 students, 91 were promoted to the next grade.

That same year, North Avenue approved a $1.4 billion budget for 77,807 students. That comes out to just about $18,000 per student. Meaning, taxpayers gave City Schools about $6.6 million to educate those 369 students who missed 170 school days or more.

FOX45, on Nov. 5, reached out to Baltimore City Schools for comment. Prior to publication on Nov. 11, City Schools stated in an email the district would provide a statement. North Avenue has yet to do so.

Former teacher Chris Schulze said he knew several absent students during his time teaching health and physical education at Beechfield Elementary/Middle School in Southwest Baltimore until 2015.

“When the younger students are absent, they’re not usually absent by their choice. It’s like something going on with the family, or other reasons why they can’t get to school,” he said. “The older kids, it’s often by their own volition.”

Older students sometimes didn’t attend school because they didn’t see the value of education, or because they were working to help make ends meet for their family, Schulze said. In other cases, they were caring for their younger siblings — or even their own kids.

“There’s, you know, complicated and complex life here in Baltimore City, and it starts at a young age,” he said.

Since Schulze left his teaching career, chronic absenteeism has increased more than 10 percentage points from 2016 to 2023, according to data from the Maryland State Department of Education. Students can be absent for various reasons, such as an illness, family circumstances, housing instability, a need to work, or involvement with the juvenile justice system, according to MSDE’s January report. They also may not attend school due to bullying, unsafe conditions, harassment, or embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Chang said that if a student misses 60 or 90 instructional days, it could take years of individualized attention to catch that student up.

“When you’re talking 60 or 90 days, you’re at 20%. You’re at 40% or 50% — it’s going to be extremely hard for those kids — if not impossible,” explained Chang.

Del. April Rose, a Republican representing Carroll and Frederick counties, has proposed legislation in past sessions requiring students to be counted quarterly, instead of once per year, and requiring education aid to be calculated based on the average quarterly count. She says the bill would make the system more fair to taxpayers, since they may be providing funds for students not attending school for much of the year. The bill has not passed.

“If we don’t even know where these kids are, how do we even know if a family needs help, if there are supports that are needed?” she asked.

Have a news tip? Contact Chris Papst at cjpapst@sbgtv.com or Brooke Conrad at bconrad@baltsun.com.