Teacher 'chronic absence' rate exceeds students'

The San Diego Union Tribune reports:

The federal government has begun putting together a regular report on how many students — and how many teachers — are “chronically absent” from school.

It turns out teachers get that label more than their pupils.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, nearly one out of every four teachers in San Diego County miss 10 or more school days per year, a threshold that triggers that label. Those absences don’t include professional development time off for training or in-service days.

On the other hand, fewer than one in 10 students were labeled chronically absent in the same data set, which covers the 2013-14 school year.

The teacher’s absences are, for the most part, sick or personal days built into their union contracts and granted by administrators. But after years of focusing on truancy and student absences, more research of late has begun to examine what happens when teachers miss a good chunk of the school year.

The recent federal data marks the first time the matter has been tracked at the nationwide level as well.

The great moments of government schools.