The local non-profit, E3 Alliance, has relaunched its Missing School Matters campaign as the new academic year gets underway. It's reminding students why it's important to go to class, especially in Central Texas, where students miss more days of school than their peers across the state in every grade.
Here are some more startling statistics about the cost attendance in Central Texas:
- There are 2.4 million student absences every year at schools in the region
- Half of students miss six or more days of school a year
- Every day a student misses school, it costs their district $38
- Absenteeism costs the average Central Texas high school $20,000 a week
- The Central Texas region loses $91M a year in state funding due to absenteeism
- If the Austin School District had 100 percent attendance it would fill its funding gap, and "have another $30 million to spare," says Superintendent Meria Carstarphen
- Increasing the attendance rate by just two percent in Central Texas would increase revenue by $34 million per year
