Each year, children who don’t attend school regularly lose out on a cash benefit from the state, and thousands of families who apply for the benefit are rejected because of attendance records.
Here’s the problem – research points to family poverty as a leading contributor to student absenteeism. So the people losing this benefit are the ones who need it the most.
Lori Higgins worked in K-12 education for years. She’s the bureau chief for Chalkbeat educational reporting, and she joins us to talk about this tough situation.