He said he had also spoken firmly to parents of students who were chronically absent or late, leading attendance to improve.

While the problem affects youth of all backgrounds, children in poverty are more likely to be chronically absent.

Chronically absent students tended to be concentrated in a relatively small number of schools.

In Florida, 52 percent of chronically absent students were in just 15 percent of schools.

Nearly 30 percent of school aged children are chronically absent.

But based on what he found in a few districts, said Mr. Stancik, the problems in tracking chronically absent students is probably systemwide.

Both had been chronically absent, the education official said.

In the last month, the chronically absent girl in Ms. Moffett's class has shown some academic improvement.

Mr. Levy said he had begun taking steps during the current school year to improve attendance monitoring and determine who was chronically absent and why.

And he recruited mentors for 4,000 chronically absent students.