What about truancy?
Recently there have been several releases from the Santa Barbara Unified School District that give percentage breakdowns regarding grades and race and/or socioeconomic status. The Asian and white students are always in the higher success brackets. I have seen no breakdowns regarding truancy. I have heard, from unofficial sources that the truancy problem is not great in the early school years, but increases in junior high school and high school and is particularly serious in the Hispanic and black communities. The school district cites that without sufficient food, grades suffer. The schools provide food. Then there was the cry that there remains a need to provide food to the students during the summer. That has been taken care of. Still, the disparity in achievement remains. Although we have been given a lot of statistics, I havent seen a report regarding student absences. Mike Kauffman  Santa Barbara