Can students survive missing 20%-plus school days? Here's a list of schools where students miss the most.

Last week, we wrote about the importance of studying school-level data in anticipation of the New Jersey Department of Education releasing its School Performance Reports for 2024-25. It did so on Thursday afternoon.

The redesigned reports are easy to read and are clear in the state's online presentation. You have to do some data mining to find what you need, but it is a large database. To see how your district, school or the state as a whole did in the last school year, go to the reports at www.nj.gov/education/spr/.

You can get lost in the data, but clearly one important measure — particularly for districts struggling with poor student outcomes — is absenteeism.

While chronic absenteeism rates, the national standard measure, is available for each school as always, the education department has once again gone granular and given us more data showing just how bad chronic absenteeism is in some districts.

In the state's online database, under "Climate and Environment" and then "Absenteeism" you can find a bunch of statistics. Scroll to the bottom and you'll find six categories of "Percentage of Days Absent" from 0% to 20% or more of the days. That 20% or more is equivalent to missing about 36 or more of the school year's days. (see table below of the 17 schools with 20% or more)

"Research suggests that children who are chronically absent for multiple years between preschool and second grade are much less likely to read at grade level by the third grade. This has been shown elsewhere to make students four times more likely to not graduate from high school," according to a report by the U.S. Department of Education.

Multiple, and often interconnected, factors affect absenteeism, according to the report. "Student disengagement, lack of access to student and family supports and student and family health challenges (are) significant drivers," the report says.

The long-standing measure of chronic absenteeism is defined as "being absent for 10% or more days enrolled during the school year."

Camden High School and Pinnacle Academy High School in Plainfield had the highest chronic absenteeism rates in the state: 75%. The statewide average was 14.4%.