PORTLAND, Oregon — Chronic absenteeism amongst K-12 students in the state of Oregon decreased in the 2023-2024 school year, according to new data released by the Oregon Department of Education.
65.7% of students were regular attendees, up 3.8% from the previous year. Oregon defines a regular attendee as someone who is in class 90% of the time. Attendance numbers for K-5 students showed an even greater improvement, up 6.7% from 2022-2023.
However, numbers are still down considerably from before the COVID-19 pandemic; 79.6% of students in the state were regular attendees during the 2018-2019 school year, the last full year before the pandemic…