Samantha Cooper

LHS seniors are waiting to be called for their diploma at the 2022-2023 LHS graduation.

Just recently, the South Dakota Department of Education released the 2022-2023 annual report cards on school districts across the state, including the SFSD. 

While the SFSD’s attendance rate, 85%, was almost on par with the state’s average rate of 86%, the district’s chronic absenteeism rate overtakes the state’s average by almost 5% (25% vs 21%). In the SFSD, native students were the most statistically significant in chronic absenteeism at 64%. The South Dakota Department of Education states chronic absenteeism  “is when a student misses 10% or more of the school year.” For reference, that is approximately two days a month of missed learning. 

According to the White House, chronic absenteeism is highly correlated with lower grades, lower standardized test scores and a higher probability of dropping out. This, in turn, reduces the quality of future workers. Even so, the SFSD made large improvements from a 76% attendance rate in 2021-2022 to an 85% attendance rate in 2022-2023. Still, minority groups miss school the most compared to their white counterparts, despite white students being the majority of the SFSD racial makeup.

LHS, compared to the district and the state, is keeping up the pace. In some areas, LHS exceeds the rates. From the South Dakota Department of Education, LHS’s graduation rate is 88%, compared to the district’s 85% and the state’s 86%. LHS percentages also topple other schools in the district and in the state on standardized testing on subjects like ELA, science, and mathematics. On the U.S. News & World Report, LHS is ranked #1 in the district and #3 in the state. Although details on LHS chronic absenteeism and attendance were not released yet, only 3% of LHS students were chronically absent in 2021-2022. That is almost an entire 30% lower than the state and the district from last year.

According to Dr. Laura Raeder, the current LHS principal, LHS has recently scored extremely high in daily attendance rates.

“We’re out within .8 of each other [compared to other SFSD schools]. I know it just seems crazy to be that similar, but yeah, we have about 90% daily attendance rates,” said Raeder.

Even though LHS does not suffer tremendously from chronic absenteeism, the district does. To combat this, the SFSD began testing different approaches, such as student liaisons. The SDDE funded $1.5 million to combat the rampant issue of chronic absenteeism within the district, hoping that the 25% may decrease. Even so, Raeder explained that student liaisons are only being implemented in SFSD middle schools and lower, but LHS is combating absenteeism in a multitude of other ways.

“No high schools got [student liasions]. The belief is that by the time you’re 14, you should be able to figure out how to get to school, and there is free busing too. We do have a lot of students receiving a 17-day absence letter. We try to figure out the why, like why you’re not coming. We try to figure out the incentive,”  said Raeder.

Although the approach is straightforward, Raeder further elaborates that it’s difficult to confront students on their absences because of the possible reasons behind it.”

“Those are the hard conversations,” said Raeder. “There are so many reasons why.”

Despite some of the issues LHS has, the school continues to exceed all necessary rates across the board. Hopefully, someday, the SFSD will also slow the epidemic of chronic absenteeism.