Priority 4 of 5
Increasing student attendance
Students have to be in the classroom to benefit from the classroom. Absence is usually a symptom, not a choice.
Absenteeism is tied to transportation, healthcare, family circumstances, housing instability and disengagement. Bobby will make attendance a community priority and treat the causes, not just the record.
Michigan counts a student as chronically absent after 18 missed days in a 180-day year — roughly two a month. It is a low bar to cross, and once a child crosses it the academic cost compounds quietly for years.
Almost none of it is defiance. It is a car that failed, a younger sibling who was sick, a family that moved twice this year, asthma, a bus that does not come. Attendance policy that treats absence as a discipline problem is aiming at the wrong target.
What moves the number is unglamorous: someone noticing early, someone calling, and somebody solving the actual barrier — a ride, a coat, a health appointment.
The goal: Every day in school is a chance to learn, connect, and move closer to graduation.
What that means in practice
- Community partnerships that identify and address the real barriers
- Early intervention when a student starts missing school regularly
- Stronger communication between schools and families
- Community-based attendance initiatives, mentorship and student engagement
- Use attendance data to find where resources are actually needed
60.9%
of DPSCD students were chronically absent in 2024–25
Michigan average: 28%
In Michigan a student is “chronically absent” after missing 18 days of a 180-day school year — about two days a month.
He already does this
A coach knows on the first missed practice, not the tenth. The call home, the ride arranged, the quiet word with a parent — that is the same mechanism a district needs, just at a scale nobody has built yet.
See the workThis is bigger than one seat
Parents who show up are the whole strategy.