Despite last year’s Detroit Public School campaign entitled “Attendance … Every Day, All Day,” the district’s 2010-2011 attendance numbers failed to meet state requirements and will face the loss of $4.2 million in state aid, according to the Detroit News.
Though the lost money will further hurt the state-controlled school district, the Detroit News reports that the damage could have been worse:
In its amended 2011-12 budget, DPS said it expected to pay $21 million to the state for dropping below 75 percent attendance and had budgeted for the expense. The state informed DPS in March the amount would be closer to $4 million, giving DPS $17 million more money, which was returned to the general fund.
According to its 2011-2012 budget, the district received about $497 million in state funding over the school year, up three percent from the expected amount.
According to the DPS website, each student enrolled above the budgeted number on count days brings $7,550 in state funding. In order to encourage count day attendance in its 137 schools in the past through ice cream and pizza parties, “dress down” days for schools that require uniforms, and even a 2009 Radio One-sponsored contest in which students attending school could win a plasma TV, laptop computer, iPod nanos, or an American Express gift card.
- Elaine Ezekiel, Michigan Radio Newsroom
