PER-2022-3510

DPI could not provide the student attendance data necessary to perform the analysis or to support the audit findings and conclusions with sufficient, appropriate evidence. Specifically, student attendance data provided by DPI was not complete or accurate for five of the six school districts selected.

However, despite the data limitation, auditors were able to perform some procedures to determine that: 

• All six school districts did not comply with North Carolina’s Truancy Law during the 2020-2021 school year. Specifically, District schools did not perform required actions for students with three, six, and ten or more unexcused absences. 
• Henderson County Public Schools had 1,647 (13%) chronically absent students during the 2020-2021 school year. 
• Henderson County Public Schools had 1,327 (87%) chronically absent students promoted to the next grade or graduated from high school during the 2020-2021 school year. 
• All six school districts did not monitor to ensure student attendance data was complete and accurate. 
• The attendance data for five school districts could not be analyzed to reliably determine (1) how many students were chronically absent during the 2020-2021 school year, and (2) how many chronically absent students were promoted or graduated during the 2020-2021 school year.