Oregon Live – Betsy Hammond
“Oregon needs a comprehensive plan to reduce the state’s high rate of chronic absenteeism, lawmakers on the House Education Committee decided this week. The fact that Oregon schools do little to intervene despite having 94,000 students miss at least 10 percent of the school year is a huge problem, business and education leaders told the panel on Wednesday. That chronic absenteeism undermines student learning and contributes powerfully to the state’s abysmal graduation rate, they said, so it urgently needs to be addressed. Lawmakers on the committee readily agreed and on Friday approved House Bill 4002, directing the Department of Education to come up with that plan before December. Two Republicans on the nine-member committee voted against the bill, however, citing doubts that the education department is equipped to make a real difference on the ground in schools.”(more)