When you see the student attendance data for the Buffalo Public Schools, it's clear: the city has a problem.
And that problem is far more severe in some schools than in others.
At the high school level, it's clear that the worst attendance is at the lowest-performing schools.
Consider: At each of Buffalo's six persistently lowest-achieving high schools (Lafayette, Burgard, South Park, Bennett, Riverside and East), more than 40 percent of students missed more than seven full weeks of school.
Less than half the students at each of those schools graduated in four years. (Check out our WNY database of graduation rates.)
Compare that to City Honors, where 1 percent of students missed that much school. And 89 percent of students graduated in four years.
Or da Vinci, where 7 percent missed that much school -- and 90 percent of students graduated in four years.
Middle Early College, a program that enables high school students to earn college credits at ECC, reported 10 percent of students in that category of "severe" absenteeism. (Sorry, no graduation rate was available for this program.)
And Hutch Tech had 14 percent of students in that category -- and an 86 percent four-year graduation rate.
What gives?
Some will argue that parents need to do a better job getting their kids to school.
Parent leader Sam Radford argues that the district needs to do a better job creating excellent schools that kids want to go to.
Which is it?
That debate will no doubt continue -- and it's one that ought to give the district and all of its stakeholders plenty of material for constructive conversations.
In the meantime, the numbers clearly bear witness to the disparity among schools.
| School # | School name | Chronic: 18-35 days | Severe: 36 days or more | Chronic + Severe | |||
| 3 | D'Youville Porter Campus | 30% | 7% | 37% | |||
| 6 | Buffalo Elementary School of Technology | 26% | 9% | 35% | |||
| 17 | Early Childhood Center 17 | 33% | 15% | 48% | |||
| 18 | Antonia Pantoja | 24% | 9% | 33% | |||
| 19 | Native American Magnet | 25% | 7% | 32% | |||
| 27 | Hillery Park | 23% | 8% | 31% | |||
| 30 | Frank Sedita | 28% | 10% | 38% | |||
| 31 | Harriet Ross Tubman | 31% | 10% | 41% | |||
| 32 | Bennett Park Montessori | 25% | 4% | 29% | |||
| 33 | Bilingual Center 33 | 31% | 13% | 44% | |||
| 37 | Futures Academy | 31% | 15% | 46% | |||
| 39 | Martin Luther King Jr. | 33% | 10% | 43% | |||
| 43 | Lovejoy Discovery | 25% | 9% | 34% | |||
| 45 | International School | 19% | 4% | 23% | |||
| 53 | Community School 53 | 29% | 11% | 40% | |||
| 54 | George Blackman | 25% | 6% | 31% | |||
| 56 | Olmsted 56 | 19% | 4% | 23% | |||
| 59 | Drew Science Magnet | 28% | 9% | 37% | |||
| 61 | Early Childhood Center 61 | 28% | 11% | 39% | |||
| 64 | Olmsted 64 | 9% | 1% | 10% | |||
| 65 | Roosevelt Early Childhood Center | 34% | 15% | 49% | |||
| 66 | North Park Middle Academy | 30% | 8% | 38% | |||
| 67 | Discovery | 11% | 1% | 12% | |||
| 69 | Houghton Academy | 28% | 10% | 38% | |||
| 72 | Lorraine Elementary | 21% | 7% | 28% | |||
| 74 | Hamlin Park | 30% | 10% | 40% | |||
| 76 | Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy | 31% | 19% | 50% | |||
| 79 | Grabiarz | 37% | 5% | 42% | |||
| 80 | Highgate Heights | 18% | 6% | 24% | |||
| 81 | School 81 | 20% | 4% | 24% | |||
| 82 | Early Childhood Center 82 | 28% | 14% | 42% | |||
| 84 | Erie County Health Center | 31% | 24% | 55% | |||
| 89 | Lydia T. Wright | 24% | 6% | 30% | |||
| 90 | Drew Science Magnet 90 | 34% | 14% | 48% | |||
| 91 | BUILD Academy | 27% | 12% | 39% | |||
| 93 | Southside Elementary | 29% | 9% | 38% | |||
| 94 | West Hertel Academy | 27% | 13% | 40% | |||
| 95 | Waterfront Elementary | 26% | 7% | 33% | |||
| 96 | Campus West | 24% | 10% | 34% | |||
| 97 | Harvey Austin | 31% | 13% | 44% | |||
| 99 | Stanley Makowski | 27% | 9% | 36% | |||
| 187 | Performing Arts | 27% | 10% | 37% | |||
| 195 | City Honors | 8% | 1% | 9% | |||
| 197 | Math Science Technology Prep | 28% | 18% | 46% | |||
| 198 | International Prep at Grover | 24% | 30% | 54% | |||
| 200 | Bennett High School | 26% | 51% | 77% | |||
| 202 | Grover Cleveland | 19% | 76% | 95% | |||
| 204 | Lafayette | 23% | 45% | 68% | |||
| 205 | Riverside Institute of Technology | 28% | 51% | 79% | |||
| 206 | South Park High School | 32% | 41% | 73% | |||
| 212 | Leonardo da Vinci | 23% | 7% | 30% | |||
| 301 | Burgard | 27% | 42% | 69% | |||
| 302 | Emerson | 33% | 22% | 55% | |||
| 304 | Hutch Tech | 25% | 14% | 39% | |||
| 305 | McKinley | 33% | 39% | 72% | |||
| 307 | East | 36% | 43% | 79% | |||
| 350 | Academy Program at Floss | 16% | 64% | 80% | |||
| 351 | Academy Program at 44 | 22% | 63% | 85% | |||
| 407 | WNY Day Treatment | 15% | 62% | 77% | |||
| 415 | Middle Early College | 20% | 10% | 30% |
- Mary Pasciak
E-mail me at mpasciak@buffnews.com or follow me on 
Twitter. Check out the Buffalo News' education page at www.buffalonews.com/schools.
