WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District Department of Human Services announced Tuesday that the city’s Truancy Reduction Pilot Program will expand to every public and public charter high school in Wards 7 and 8 for the 2026-27 school year, following two consecutive years of measurable decreases in student absenteeism.
The announcement coincided with the release of the program’s Year 2 Final Report, which showed that 64 percent of students referred to the pilot in its first year were no longer truant in its second year. By comparison, 86 percent of students across the District who accumulated chronic absences during the 2024-25 school year remained truant in 2025-26.
Launched in August 2024, the initiative replaces automated court and child welfare referrals with family-centered support services designed to address underlying barriers to school attendance. Under District guidelines, families are connected with Department of Human Services staff once a student reaches 10 unexcused full-day absences in middle school or 15 unexcused absences in high school.
The upcoming expansion broadens the program beyond its initial 10 participating campuses to all high schools in Wards 7 and 8, with an emphasis on ninth and tenth graders navigating the transition into high school. Support services will also remain active for eleventh and twelfth graders previously enrolled in the pilot. Interventions include specialized attendance education, 90-day brief case management, and intensive six-month family case management paired with tutoring, mentoring, and behavioral health resources.
City officials noted that the targeted expansion aligns with broader District efforts to curb chronic absenteeism, which has fallen by nine percentage points across the city since its pandemic-era peak.
The Washington Herald
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Washington, D.C.
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