PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Roughly a third of Oregon’s American Indian and Alaskan Native students were chronically absent last year, the worst statewide rate out of student groups.

The Oregon Department of Education released data Thursday showing the percentage of students who attended at least 90 percent of school days. Statewide about 17 percent, or nearly 94,000 students, missed that benchmark.

The state provided data broken down by grade and student groups, including low-income students, African American students, students with disabilities and others, for districts and schools. Data shows that attendance rates for the state’s approximately 7,850 Native students has hardly budged since the 2013-2014 school year, with about 30 percent missing too much class.

“It’s just really disheartening,” said April Campbell, the state’s Indian Education Advisor. “It’s very concerning. If you’re not there, you can’t learn.”

State research has shown that missing too much school is strongly connected with a student’s failure to graduate. Students who are absent too often might also be at risk of becoming poor readers. A series by the Oregonian/OregonLive in 2014, “Empty Desks,” alerted policy makers and educators to Oregon’s high overall rates of chronic absenteeism and the potential consequences.

A 2014 study conducted by ECONorthwest and overseen by the Chalkboard Project found that children who are members of Oregon Indian tribes do poorly in school largely because they miss so much class. Only about 59 percent of tribal members in the class of 2011 earned a diploma within five years, compared to 72 percent of all Oregon students.

The issue of chronic absenteeism among Native students is multi-faceted, according to a statement from Tana Atchley, vice-president of the Oregon Indian Education Association. A lack of culturally relevant curriculum, Native educators, funding for districts with rural students and transportation issues alienates native communities from schools, she said.

“These complicated issues both compound and simultaneously re-create issues of chronic absenteeism,” she said in the statement. “The trend of chronic absenteeism in Native students is a complex issue that needs to be addressed on multiple levels.”

The Lincoln County School District on the Oregon coast had the highest chronically absent rate, 40 percent, out of districts with at least 50 Native American students enrolled.

Clint Raever, principal at Toledo Jr/Sr High and the Lincoln County district’s Native American education administrator, said his school takes many steps to monitor absent students and employs liaisons to connect with Native American families.

But the school’s students are often living in poverty, lack transportation or move frequently, which can make showing up to school tough. In some cases a student’s bus ride to school takes an hour and half, Raever said. Other students might skip class so they can get to work on time or simply need an alarm clock at home.

“Part of that learning curve is showing up to school,” Raever said. “It’s the foundation for the rest of their life.”

Jefferson County schools, which serves students who live on or near the Warm Springs reservation in central Oregon, has the most Native American students out of any district statewide. About 35 percent of its 950 Native students missed too much school last year.

The Klamath County School District in southern Oregon had one of the stronger attendance rates for districts with large counts of Native students. Roughly 80 percent of the district’s 377 Native students attended class almost all the time, data shows.

The Oregon Indian Education Association and other agencies are working to help implement the state’s newly revised plan to boost achievement for Native American students. The Oregon American Indian/Alaska Native Education State Plan, updated in April, lists 11 goals, including retaining more Native teachers and increasing graduation and attendance rates for students. About .6 percent of Oregon teachers are American Indian or Alaskan Native, Campbell said.

The Legislature allocated about $1.5 million to fund a pilot attendance program that pairs each of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes with a school that serves Native students and has high truancy rates, Campbell said. The funding will also cover a campaign to raise awareness of what the pilot programs determine works best to improve attendance.

The specifics of the pilot program are still being developed and will launch early next year, Campbell said. The state also recently hired a second Native education specialist.

“We’ve recognized that there is definitely a need to better understand the `whys’ behind this data,” Campbell said.

Statewide special education students, low-income students and Pacific Islanders also had high absenteeism rates, with more than 20 percent of students in those groups missing too much class.

Asian and Talented and Gifted students had the lowest absenteeism rates, with 10 percent of students or fewer deemed chronically absent last school year. English Language learners and white students had the next highest with about 15 percent of students missing too much class.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com