Mayor Bowser Expands the Truancy Reduction Pilot to Every Public High School in Wards 7 and 8: the Year 2 Report Shows a 64 Percent Reduction in Repeat Truancy Among Participants
Washington, D.C. — Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Department of Human Services (DHS) announced that the District's Truancy Reduction Pilot Program will expand to every DC Public Schools and public charter high school in Wards 7 and 8 in School Year 2026-27, building on two years of results. Wards 7 and 8 have the highest rates of truancy in the District, and the pilot places emphasis on 9th and 10th grade students.
DHS also released the pilot's Year 2 Final Report, covering August 2025 through June 2026, which shows that only 36 percent of students referred to the pilot in Year 1 were truant again in Year 2 — a 64 percent reduction. By contrast, 86 percent of students District-wide who were truant in SY24-25 were truant again in SY25-26. The report also found that 38 percent of students referred to Brief Case Management improved their attendance, as did 44 percent of students referred to the PASS intensive case management program.
"Every day a student misses school is a day of opportunity lost. This expansion means more families will have the support they need to make every day count," Mayor Bowser said. The pilot, which began in August 2024, replaces referrals to child welfare and courts for truant students with early-intervention services; families are connected to DHS-led services once a student reaches 10 unexcused full-day absences in middle school or 15 in high school. "When our case managers sit down with a family and figure out what's actually standing between a student and the classroom, we see real, measurable change," said DHS Director A. D. Rachel Pierre.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 华盛顿特区 Pennsylvania Avenue 一带实景。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，开放授权。 / File photo: a view over Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Image via Wikimedia Commons, open license.
