Advocates warn that attendance policies can be unfair to students from low-income families and students of color, who are more likely to have their absences labeled as unexcused.

A new dashboard will include local data on excused and unexcused absences broken down by grade and demographic information, like race and family income.

When students miss lots of school without an excuse, it’s known as truancy — and in Indiana, it can lead to a visit from a truancy investigator.

Last school year, 17.8 percent of Indiana students were considered chronically absent, down 1.4 percentage points from the prior year.

Hundreds of educators, youth workers and community leaders gathered in Indianapolis to talk about how to help students who are chronically absent from school.

Indiana schools will be required to intervene when elementary students are truant under a bill signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb.

A proposal to combat truancy in the Indiana legislature raised concerns that it would push students into the juvenile justice system.

An earlier version of the school truancy bill would have cracked down by increasing family involvement with courts.

About 40% of Hoosier students missed 10 or more school days last year, and nearly one in five were absent for at least 18 days, according to new Indiana data.

The Indiana Department of Education says schools across the state have an attendance problem. The department introduced new attendance data and discussed possible solutions this week at an Indiana State Board of Education meeting.