For the past four years, truancy has plagued Houston Independent School District. But while the district is reporting tens of thousands of unexcused absences annually, it has failed to report any substantial truancy prevention efforts.
According to the Texas Education Code Section 65.003, “A child engages in truant conduct if the child is required to attend school… and fails to attend school 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year.”
The only exceptions to this are if the absences were excused by a school official, were involuntary (such as with a doctor’s note), or were due to abuse. Texas law also mandates that districts implement truancy prevention measures and report those efforts.
Some truancy prevention measures include behavior improvement plans and assigning counselors to work with at-risk students on implementing strategies to help them make it to school.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) compiles all truancy-related data for the state.
According to data for Houston ISD over the last four years, in the 2020-2021 school year, the district reported 86,647 unexcused absences; in 2021-2022, there were 76,801 unexcused absences; in 2022-2023, the number dropped to 65,658 unexcused absences; and in 2023-2024, the number further decreased to 63,626 unexcused absences.
Despite the numbers of unexcused absences, the district did not report a single truancy prevention measure or truancy complaint over the four-year period.
In an interview with KPRC 2, HISD’s Deputy Director of Schools Daniel Gerard discussed the truancy issues affecting the district. Gerard mentioned that the district does have a truancy prevention program. He alleged the problem lies within the reporting process.
When asked about the reporting issues, Gerard said he could not speak to the prevention efforts before the state takeover in 2023, but acknowledged, “We are aware that there was a challenge with the previous reporting system, and that’s something we will make sure happens appropriately.”
The state takeover—in which legislators dissolved Houston ISD’s school board and appointed a new one through the TEA—occurred in June 2023. However, even after the takeover, the district’s most recent reports (for the 2023-2024 school year) still fail to include the proper truancy prevention reporting.
The issue, however, extends beyond Houston ISD’s reporting problems.
The TEA is now conducting a comprehensive analysis of truancy data after it was revealed that these problems are widespread across multiple districts.
From the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2024, about 1 million children were considered truant each year in Texas. Similarly to Houston ISD, 13-14 percent of districts reported zero truancy prevention efforts during that time.
The question now is whether these issues are largely due to reporting or organizational problems, or whether they reflect a refusal to comply with the legal requirements for truancy prevention.
All of this comes after the release of the National Assessment for Education Statistics (NAES) test scores, which show that Texas students, particularly in reading, performed poorly. In fact, average math and reading scores in Texas were lower than those in 2022, with only three states scoring lower in reading. NAES Commissioner Peggy Carr emphasized that many of the issues in reading and especially in math are a direct result of chronic absenteeism.
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
