New York City School Attendance and Chronic Absenteeism 2016-2021

2016-17 to 2020-21 school year data on student attendance and chronic absenteeism from New York City public school districts 1-32 and 75. The dataset tracks attendance attributed to the school a student attended at the time, with chronic absenteeism defined as attendance of 90% or less. Data includes demographic breakdowns for Students With Disabilities and English Language Learners, with suppression applied to protect student privacy.

Use Cases

• Analyze chronic absenteeism rates across school districts and boroughs using the NYSED definition of 90% or less attendance.
• Track attendance trends for Students With Disabilities (SWD) and English Language Learner (ELL) student groups over the five-year period.
• Identify patterns in suppressed data rows, where counts of five or fewer students or 900 or fewer total attendance days are replaced with 's' for privacy.
• Compare Pre-K attendance data, which is limited to K-12 schools offering Pre-K, with other grade levels.

Strengths

• Covers five consecutive school years from 2016-17 to 2020-21, allowing for longitudinal analysis.
• Includes detailed demographic categories such as Students With Disabilities and English Language Learners.
• Applies consistent data suppression rules, replacing rows with five or fewer students or 900 or fewer total attendance days with 's' to comply with FERPA.

Limitations

• Excludes students from District 79 (Alternative Schools & Programs), charter schools, home schooling, and home/hospital instruction, limiting citywide representativeness.
• Pre-K data is incomplete as it excludes NYC Early Education Centers and District Pre-K Centers.
• Chronic absenteeism counts do not align across school, district, borough, and citywide files due to methodology preventing double-counting.

Provenance

Source

City of New York

Collection Method

Administrative records from New York City public school districts 1-32 and 75.

Time Range

2016-17 to 2020-21 school years

Freshness

Data last updated on November 29, 2024, covering school years through 2020-21.

Geography

New York City, specifically public school districts 1-32 and 75 (Special Education).