D.C. expands its truancy pilot to every high school in Wards 7 and 8 as referrals double

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — The District’s truancy pilot, which sends chronically absent students to social-services case managers instead of to the courts or the child-welfare agency, will expand this school year to every public and public charter high school in Wards 7 and 8, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Department of Human Services announced Tuesday.

The expansion was paired with the program’s Year 2 final report, which covers August 2025 through June 2026. It found that 294 of the 456 students who were truant in the pilot’s first year, or 64 percent, were no longer truant by the end of the second. Districtwide, 86 percent of students who were truant in the 2024-25 school year were truant again in 2025-26.

The mayor’s office described the result as “a 64% reduction in truancy.” The report itself frames the comparison more narrowly: 36 percent of Year 1 participants were truant again, which it calls “a 58% lower recurrence rate” than the citywide figure. The report compares participants with all truant students citywide rather than with a matched control group.

How the pilot works

The program was created by the Pilot Truancy Reduction Emergency Amendment Act of 2024, which took effect July 23, 2024. At participating schools, high school students with 15 unexcused full-day absences, and middle school students with 10, are referred to DHS rather than to Court Social Services and the Office of the Attorney General or, for younger children, the Child and Family Services Agency.

DHS first gives parents what it calls Truancy Education: a review of the student’s absences, the legal attendance requirements and the barriers keeping the child home. Families who agree are placed in Brief Case Management, which lasts about 90 days, or six months of Parent and Adolescent Support Services intensive case management.

In Year 2, 38 percent of students in brief case management and 44 percent in the intensive track improved their attendance, according to the mayor’s release. Among students whose parents declined case management and said they would handle the problem themselves, 41 percent improved.

Referrals doubled

The first year drew 507 referrals from five schools. The second, with ten schools phased in over the year, drew 1,051.

The 2025-26 chronic truancy rates at the participating schools ranged from 35.2 percent at KIPP DC College Preparatory to 79.4 percent at Anacostia High School, according to the report.

Families that could not be reached, or said the data was wrong

The report is candid about the program’s limits. After calls, texts, emails and mailed letters, 17 percent of parents still could not be reached. DHS logged 202 instances of a parent phone number being out of service and 58 of a wrong number.

Of the parents who turned down case management, 290, or 62 percent, said they would resolve the truancy on their own. Another 119, or 25 percent, said their child was not truant at all, citing excuse notes that schools never entered, late buses and suspensions recorded as unexcused absences. The report also counted 62 erroneous referrals.

“As a system, the District could benefit from hearing directly from families about their concerns,” the report says.

It also found that Kramer Middle School, with a truancy rate above 60 percent, sent only 38 referrals because most of its students arrive late or leave early rather than miss whole days. The report says middle schoolers may need a different intervention.

What changes in Year 3

DHS says Year 3 will concentrate on ninth and 10th graders in the current schools, Kramer students, and 11th and 12th graders previously referred. It will add eight schools “without increasing the budget required for program operation,” the report says. DHS had 21 funded positions in fiscal 2026 and 16 staff on board, with five case manager jobs still being filled.

“Every day a student misses school is a day of opportunity lost,” Bowser said in the release. Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn said the focus on younger high schoolers puts “our resources where they will make the biggest difference.”

The release also pointed to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s attendance dashboard and a new attendance-rewards partnership with Rang Rewards and Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Schools can apply for its first cohort through Oct. 31.

The Inquisitor sent requests for comment to the D.C. Department of Human Services, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the Children’s Law Center and the mayor’s office on Wednesday afternoon, after this story was first published. This story will be updated with any responses.

Photo: Eastern High School on East Capitol Street NE, one of the pilot’s original schools. APK / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.