MANSFIELD — If a child misses more than two or three days of school each month, a parent/guardian may be getting a phone call.
Changes in Ohio law now require public schools to be more proactive in working with families to reduce chronic absenteeism.
“It’s all about doing early intervention, trying to (keep) them from missing school,” said Mansfield City Schools attendance coordinator Kari Cawrse.
Under Ohio law, a student is considered chronically absent if they miss at least 10 percent of the school year.
Cawrse said recent updates to Ohio law also change how student absence is counted, starting this fall.
Any time away from the school now count towards a student being chronically absent, whether those absences are excused or unexcused. That includes any absences due to suspensions or medical issues if instruction is not provided.
Being chronically absent is not the same as being truant. A student is considered a “habitual truant” if they have unexcused absences totalling 30 or more consecutive hours, 42 or more hours per month or 72 or more hours per year, according to Ohio law.
While students aren’t penalized by the school system or under the law for chronic absenteeism, there are still consequences.
“Missing instructional time from school can lead to poor grades, poor test scores, a higher chance of not graduating,” Cawrse said. “It also causes higher stress for our kids when they fall behind — higher anxiety, lower motivation.”
Cawrse said holding students to a high attendance standard also prepares them for life after graduation.
“One of the jobs of schools is preparing our students to become contributing members of the community. And attendance doesn’t just stop when you graduate from high school,” she said. “Many employers have attendance policies in place and that (employees) must follow while they’re working there. So being at school daily and on time matters.”
1 in 4 Ohio students were chronically absent in 2024-25
By law, school districts are required to have absence intervention teams that follow certain guidelines based on student attendance.
Starting this fall, Mansfield City Schools will begin notifying parents and guardians once a student’s absenteeism rate hits 5 percent. Those notifications could come through a letter, leader alert, phone call and/or FinalForms.
If a student’s absence rate reaches 10 percent, the school’s attendance team will reach out to a student’s parents and guardians, and in some cases, students themselves, to see if there are barriers to attending school regularly and what can be done to help improve attendance.
If a student has missed 20 percent or more of the school year, the district will schedule an absence intervention meeting with a student and their parent or guardian and develop a plan to address the chronic absenteeism.
“The team will look at attendance data, discuss concerns, and implement targeted interventions to help them come to school regularly and on time,” Cawrse said.
Chronic absenteeism across Ohio hit a peak of 30.2 percent during the 2021-2022 school year. It has slowly but steadily declined since then, but still remains high. Around one in four students were chronically absent during the 2024-2025 school year.
More than 28 percent of Mansfield City Schools students were chronically absent during the 2024-2025 school year, according to data from the Ohio School Report Cards.
Board retroactively approves meeting minutes spanning 13 month period
The board also retroactively approved board meeting minutes from 27 school board meetings, which occurred between June 10, 2025 and July 21, 2026.
Board member Deena Hamilton abstained from the vote, since she did not begin serving on the board until January 2026.
Ohio law requires school boards to read and approve previous meeting minutes at each regular meeting, making any corrections needed.
The Open Meetings Act doesn’t specify a timeframe for when minutes have to be available, only that they “must be promptly prepared, filed and made available for public inspection.”
Mansfield City Schools has consistently posted board meeting minutes on its website, but had not voted to approve meeting minutes for several months.
