Community Impact Newspaper
by Kelli Weldon
June 27, 2013
Officials: Missed school days equal less funding for Austin ISD
Austin ISD loses $45 in state revenue each time a student is absent, and if the district had 100 percent attendance for an entire school year, it would receive an additional $25 million in state funding annually, according to AISD.
Southwest Austin is not immune to attendance issues, said parent Casie Wenmohs, co-chairwoman of Oak Hill Elementary School’s campus advisory committee.
“We have quite a culturally and socioeconomically diverse population, so our challenges run the gamut from parents scheduling an extra day of vacation when it’s a school day to … children in family situations where if they miss the bus, they have no other way to get to school,” she said. “I do think most parents don’t realize that our state funding is tied to attendance.”
If school districts throughout Central Texas could increase attendance by 2 percentage points, the region could get an additional $34 million in state funding for education, said Susan Dawson, president and executive director of the Austin-based nonprofit E3 Alliance.
Read more.
Community-Impact-Local-Nonprofit-Tackles-Truancy-06-27-13