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Missing Inaction
During the 2008-2009 year, 272,000 Los Angeles County students, or 16% of all students, were truant from school. For more depressing statistics and background commentary, click here. As the article points out, it is important to monitor truancy rates, since most of these kids are at high risk to struggle in school and eventually drop out.
Despite the diagnostic potential of truancy statistics, however, to the best of our knowledge no jurisdiction in Ontario keeps track of them. Of course, it's in schools' interests to ignore truancy, since the government bases its funding on attendance.
I expect most people just assume there is very little truancy in Ontario, but I'm not so sure of this. I would be grateful if some of our teacher readers, like TDSBNW and Mr. Wainscotting and maybe even the Dean, could enlighten us regarding this phenomenon.