More than 30% of Colorado students in grades 8-12 missed more than 10% of school days last year — part of a statewide struggle in which the number of kids counted as chronically absent ticked up while the statewide attendance rate took a slight dip.

The state education department counted about 3,500 more students who regularly did not show up to school, extending a worrisome trend in the years following the pandemic: More than 1 in 4 Colorado students were chronically absent.

A total of 244,622 kids — representing 28.4% of total public school students in the state — were recorded as chronically absent last year, which includes both kids with excused and unexcused absences. That’s a jump of 0.7 percentage points from the 2023-24 school year, according to data released Tuesday morning by t

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