Texas educators want kids to show up for class so they can learn – but also because schools get dinged on funding if students aren’t there.
The state is one of only a handful that funds schools based on “average daily attendance” rather than measures of total enrollment.
This distinction caused problems for school districts since the pandemic triggered high rates of chronic absenteeism.
“If 20 students show up – or 22 students – you still have the same costs,” said Kevin Brown, the Texas Association of School Administrators’ executive director. “You have the teacher’s salary, your buses are running, your cafeteria is running.”
One in five Texas students was chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, according to a recent national analysis. The numbers are improving but still haven’t bounced back to pre-pandemic levels.
“It’s a COVID-related behavior change that we do not yet see a behavior rebound on,” Texas education commissioner Mike Morath recently told lawmakers at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
In 2019, the average daily attendance rate across the state was about 92%. That meant schools were funded on the attendance of roughly 5 million students – even though more than 5.4 million were enrolled.
The attendance rate dropped to about 89% by 2022.
It clawed back to roughly 91% – still about 1 percentage point lower than before the pandemic.
While this might not seem like a huge deal, every percentage point change in attendance rates equates to a $380 million drop in state funding.
Texas schools are essentially funded to the tune of 5 million students. More than 5.5 million kids now attend the state’s public schools.
Lawmakers debated switching to an enrollment-based funding system in the past, but the idea failed to gain political momentum.
“I don’t support an enrollment-based system because it takes all the incentives out to get the kids to show up,” Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, said at the October finance hearing.
Many public school leaders don’t buy that argument. Brown said they work hard to ensure students come to class. For example, some administrators go door-to-door at the beginning of the year to find students who haven’t yet shown up on campus.
“Ultimately, it’s the parents’ responsibility to bring their child to school,” he said. “It’s not fair for students who are at school to not have funding because their classmates don’t show up.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.