#DOE gives widely differing attendance data for NYC schools

The city Department of Education is playing peek-a-boo with its school attendance data — which is all over the map, The Post has learned.

While Mayor de Blasio on Thursday told reporters he had no attendance data to report, the DOE quietly posted a total attendance rate of 87.8% for all 1,600 schools on that same day.

For the first time since schools opened a month ago, the listing gave figures for both remote and in-person attendance.

Minutes after The Post asked about the data, it was yanked, suggesting it was posted by accident in the first place.

However, a spreadsheet downloaded before it was taken down shows that student attendance varies wildly among schools.

In-person attendance is supposed to track students in the blended program who come to school one to three days a week, learning online the other days.

The DOE data show 59 schools reported in-person attendance of less than 50%, with PS 165 Robert E. Simon in Manhattan posting the lowest rate, 8.67%. The school cited 86.3% online attendance.

Brownsville Academy HS posted a low 11% in-person, but also only 35% online.

Another  213 schools reported in-person attendance of less than 75%, and  777 schools reported 75% to 99% of students showing up.

Stunningly, 152 schools reported 100% in-person attendance.

At one of those schools, Francis Lewis HS in Queens, teacher Arthur Goldstein called the  figure “ridiculous.”

Firstly, Francis Lewis gives its 4,500 students all-remote instruction. Students may come to school one or two days a week only for tutoring and other support services.

Secondly, Goldstein said, “No school ever has 100% attendance. Students get sick, students have other issues. Even before COVID, we never had 100% attendance. It’s impossible.”

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Taking attendance

The city Department of Education quietly posted a total attendance rate of 87.8 % for 1,606 schools recorded on Oct. 22, calling it a “preliminary report.” The data includes both remote and in-person rates.

• 59 schools reported less than 50% in-person attendance
• 213 schools reported less than 75% in-person attendance
• 777 schools reported 75 to 99% in-person attendance
• 152 schools reported 100% in-person attendance
• 124 schools shut down  because of COVID-19 outbreaks
• 339 open DOE schools reported NO in-person data

Source: NYC DOE 

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Francis Lewis listed remote attendance at 94%.

In addition, 463 schools did not report any in-person attendance data, marking “N/A” (no answer) instead.

Of those, 124 schools in Brooklyn and Queens were ordered shut because they are located in COVID-19 “hotspots” identified by the state. Most will reopen Monday.

But that left 339 open schools reporting no in-person data at all.

The data on remote attendance also ranged widely from 18% to perfect— 68 schools reported 100% of students showing up online.

Another 68 schools reported “N/A” for online attendance.

Marking students present online doesn’t necessarily mean they stay online to learn.

“A student can log on for a minute and then not participate in class, but I still have to mark them present,” a Brooklyn high school teacher said. “I’ll call on someone midway through the class, and no one is there.”

When asked about attendance data at his regular press conference Thursday, de Blasio said it was being withheld “to make sure the numbers are accurate in what has been an ever-changing situation.”

He said parents are waffling between remote and blended instruction. “Some days they’re having their kids go to school, some days they’re not, and they haven’t really a hundred percent decided if they want to stay in that blended status or go to remote.”

Families can switch from blended to remote at any time, but they can only switch from remote to blended during specific times. The first window of opportunity is this Monday through Friday, October 26 to 30.

City Hall spokeswoman Avery Cohen would not answer questions about the yanked Oct. 22  attendance, figures, but said, “It’s preliminary to draw broad conclusions from a snapshot of data.”

She added, “Schools have been learning to use new systems to record and report data and now that most schools are using the system, we will be releasing data next week from the beginning of the school year. This will provide a more complete understanding of remote and in-person attendance.”