It would be interesting to pull the string on this and find out what causes this kind of absenteeism. In the old days, we called it being truant.
From the Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
Washington has been ranked second-worst in the nation for its number of chronically absent students, a news release from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction says, and some local school districts could be contributing to that.
According to the data, Palouse School District had one of the highest chronic absenteeism rates in the state for the 2015-16 school year, with an average of 31.3 percent of students reported as chronically absent.
The term “chronically absent” means a student has missed 10 percent or more of their school days, equaling 18 days in a year or two days per month. Palouse’s sister district, Garfield, was at 23.9 percent.
…
A representative of OSPI said the study looked solely at unexcused absences…
“About 21 percent of our students are not graduating high school, and absenteeism plays a huge role in that,” said Chris Reykdal, superintendent of public instruction.