DPS Board to Confront Chronic Absenteeism, Law Enforcement Policy Changes

Durham Public Schools’ Board of Education on Thursday will confront one of the district’s most persistent problems — student attendance — while also taking up a revised policy governing campus interactions with law enforcement and a slate of state legislative priorities.

The attendance presentation may be the meeting’s most consequential item. District staff say attendance “is not yet improving at the desired rate,” that previous efforts “have not reversed this trend,” and that chronic absenteeism has remained at elevated levels for years.