Chicago High School Attendance Fraud

The Chicago Tribune reports:

On paper, Deandre Sheppard has an attendance record that should be the pride of his high school.

According to one teacher's attendance sheet, the junior hardly had a single unexcused absence this past semester.

There's just one problem: "Man, I left school around November or December," said Sheppard, 19. "I basically had to go out and get some money."

Attendance records obtained by the Tribune show that a handful of chronically truant students at Bowen Environmental Studies Team High School on the South Side were rarely marked absent. Instead they were listed as being on "school function" -- such as field trips -- for at least a month at a time. One girl was placed on "school function" for 50 straight school days, according to attendance sheets.

That's the Chicago Way! Arne Duncan really knew how to run a school system.