When Texas students don’t show up to class, it hurts learning – and funding

DALLAS -- 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 recently.

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...