Newly released statistics from the U.S. Department of Education show that in 2013-14, more than 6 million public school students in the United States—13.1 percent of all students—were chronically absent during the year. The department defines chronic absenteeism as missing 15 days or more of school.
The department is bringing attention to chronic absenteeism because those students are considered to be at risk of falling behind their peers in academic performance.
The Associated Press analyzed the data and determined chronic absenteeism rates for individual states (as well as Washington, D.C.)
Here are the 10 states with the highest chronic absenteeism rates in 2013.-14.
