Memphis-Shelby County Schools
Tennessee's Hispanic-White Absence Gap Cut by More Than Half
In 2021, Tennessee's Hispanic students were chronically absent at 18.0%, a rate six percentage points higher than white students. Four years later, that gap has been cut to 2.5 points. The Hispanic ch...
Three in Four Districts Still Above 2021 Levels
Rutherford County, home to Murfreesboro and one of the fastest-growing suburbs in middle Tennessee, posted a chronic absenteeism rate of 4.2% in 2020-21. That year, one in 24 students was missing more...
One in Four High Schoolers Is Chronically Absent
In Davidson County, the K-8 chronic absenteeism rate has fallen five years straight, from 25.2% down to 18.4%. Attendance teams in Nashville's elementary and middle schools have pushed nearly seven pe...
Three in Four Black Students in Tennessee Are in Class. Nashville's Playbook for the Rest.
In Knox County, 29.3% of Black students were chronically absent in 2024-25. The district's overall rate was 19.4%. That 9.9 percentage-point gap means a Black ninth-grader in Knoxville is nearly twice...
180,000 Students Still Missing Too Much School
In 2023-24, Tennessee's chronic absenteeism rate fell 1.3 percentage points, the largest single-year improvement since the pandemic began. Attendance directors across the state had reason to think mom...