(The Center Square) − Nearly a quarter of Louisiana students missed 10% or more of school days last year, placing the state just below the national average for chronic absenteeism, according to a report by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.

State data put Louisiana’s chronic absenteeism rate at 22.5% for the 2023-24 school year, data from FutureEd shows. That figure tracks students who are enrolled at least 10 days but are absent — for any reason — at least 1/10th of the time, a standard set by the federal education department.

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Louisiana fares slightly better than the nation overall, where the average is 23%, but worse than neighboring Alabama (14.8%) and Oklahoma (19%). Mississippi’s rate was slightly higher at 24.4%, while Florida’s surged to 31.4%. Alaska reported the highest chronic absenteeism rate nationwide at 43.4%.

Alongside chronic absenteeism, the state continues to report high levels of truancy, defined in Louisiana as five or more unexcused absences within a single semester.

While that threshold varies nationally – some states flag students after just three missed days, others after as many as 10 – Louisiana’s numbers reveal a persistent problem.

For more than a decade, Louisiana’s truancy rate averaged about 36%.

Since the pandemic, it has stayed above 40% every year, signaling what state officials call an entrenched challenge. They warn that frequent unexcused absences undermine efforts to close learning gaps and complicate school planning, staffing, and funding.

The statewide average masks deeper local divides.

Tensas Parish, the smallest system in Louisiana, had an enrollment drop from 659 students in 2013 to 328 in 2023 – and its truancy rate spike to 67.5%, the highest in the state, the report found.

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Point Coupee (66%), St. Bernard (61.8%), and St. Landry (61.1%) posted similarly high rates. On the other end of the spectrum, Ascension (20.6%), Red River (23.6%), St. James (24.5%), and East Carroll (24.1%) reported some of the lowest truancy rates statewide.

Rapides Parish did not report data for the 2023-24 year.