Mid-year attendance numbers are giving Mayor Muriel Bowser something to brag about. New data released Monday show a sharp shift in student attendance in the District’s truancy pilot: 71 percent of students who were truant in the pilot’s first year were not truant at the same point the following year. Bowser officials say it is early proof that getting families help instead of sending cases to court can keep more kids in class.
In a press release via the Mayor’s Office, Bowser and the Department of Human Services reported that the Year Two Mid‑Year Report, covering August 2025 through February 2026, found that 71 percent of participating students who were truant in Year One (excluding 12th graders who graduated) were not truant at the same point in Year Two. The same release said nearly 92 percent of families received truancy education and that the share of parents opting into case management climbed to 47 percent.
The mayor also pushed out the news on her Facebook page, pointing followers to the mid‑year report and a writeup of what comes next. The embedded post includes a short statement from Bowser and a link to the full report for anyone who wants to drill into the numbers instead of just the headline figure.
How the pilot works
Instead of automatically sending truant students into the child‑welfare or juvenile court systems, the pilot tries an earlier and lighter touch. When students hit a set number of unexcused absences, schools hand cases to the Department of Human Services. The threshold is 10 days for middle school and 15 for high school. DHS then offers truancy education and, if families agree, either brief case management or a longer PASS intensive case management track.
According to the Department of Human Services truancy program page, case managers meet regularly with families, connect them to services, and use the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) to track changes in functioning over time. The model leans on in‑school and community‑based support rather than punitive responses.
Where the pilot ran and who it reached
As of April 2026, the program was up and running in ten schools spread across several wards: Anacostia High School, Eastern High School, H.D. Woodson, KIPP DC Legacy, KIPP DC College Preparatory, Kramer Middle, Cardozo Education Campus, Dunbar High School, Cesar Chavez PCS, and Friendship Technology Preparatory. DHS has said expansion will come in phases, tied to need and staffing capacity. The full list of schools and the rollout plan are laid out in the press release from the Mayor’s Office.
Year one findings and limits
The pilot’s Year One final report to the Council showed the program served more than 500 students in under a year, and a large majority of those students posted improved global functioning on CAFAS. City officials have pointed to that as early evidence that case management can help stabilize both attendance and behavior.
The same submission also flagged limits. The pilot was funded for 19 full‑time equivalents but started off with fewer staff, a shortfall DHS said it was working to close. The Year One final report to the Council details the program’s performance data along with the staffing and capacity constraints that matter for any expansion.
What to watch
Bowser folded her expansion blueprint into the FY27 budget. The Truancy Reduction Programs Amendment Act of 2026 would set up a citywide, prevention‑first framework and require regular public reporting on attendance and student well‑being.
Citywide attendance has ticked up since the pandemic, although progress is uneven by ward. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education has highlighted OSSE’s recent attendance reports and a new Attendance Dashboard as tools to track where supports are paying off and where more investment might be needed. How quickly the pilot model spreads beyond the original ten schools will depend on Council action on the amendment, DHS’s ability to staff up, and the depth of follow‑up supports available once students are in the door.
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