A month-old Indiana law targeting chronic absenteeism in K-12 schools aims to collect data on student attendance to better understand and address the issue.

The law defines chronic absenteeism as missing 18 days of school, which is approximately 10% of the academic year. The initiative seeks to gather detailed data on why students are missing school, whether due to illness, travel, or other reasons, to develop strategies to reduce absenteeism.

Emil Ekiyor, a community leader and entrepreneur who is a contributor to WISH-TV, said Friday on News 8 at 5 p.m., “We need to collect data on what’s happening in this situation, why are kids missing school. It was shocking to find out that we didn’t have a strong data-collection system.”

The law does not differentiate between excused and unexcused absences when calculating chronic absenteeism. Even if a student has valid reasons for missing school, such as medical appointments or family travel, accumulating 18 absences categorizes them as chronically absent.

Indiana state Sen. Andy Zay, a Republican from Huntington, was involved in clarifying misunderstandings about the law, emphasizing that the focus is on understanding the reasons behind absenteeism rather than penalizing students.

It’s hoped the data collected will help educators and policymakers understand the correlation between absenteeism and academic performance, potentially leading to new policies or support systems to help students stay engaged in their education.

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