Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.
As the Detroit school district continues to explore ways to reduce chronic absenteeism, providing bicycles to students could help them travel to and from school, some board members say.
The bike idea was brought up by Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti during a school board meeting on Tuesday. He said district officials recently completed interviews with high school students who were chronically absent this past school year and weren’t eligible for any of the incentives the district provided, such as its gift card program. One of the recommendations the teens made to curb chronic absenteeism was bikes, Vitti said.
“They felt like if they had bikes, that might help get them to and from school,” he said. “It makes sense in the spring and fall, it’s more complicated in the winter. But I thought that was interesting that it came directly from students.”
Board Vice President LaTrice McClendon said the district has a warehouse full of bikes that could be used as part of an attendance incentive. BridgeDetroit reached out to a DPSCD spokesperson to find out where the bikes came from and how many are in the warehouse, but has not gotten a response yet.
“I hope we can take those bikes and immediately fill the needs of the students who have the request,” McClendon said. “When I went in there to tour the warehouse, I was told those bikes have been sitting for two or three years.”
The comments were part of a larger discussion on curbing chronic absenteeism in DPSCD. Board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo asked Vitti if he had a survey highlighting why students are chronically absent from school.
In response, Vitti said he will have a report soon for the board based on the interviews with the absent high school students. During his superintendent’s report, Vitti said the average daily attendance rate for the district slightly increased this past school year. In the 2023-24 school year, daily attendance was at 82%, and for 2024-25, the rate was at 84%. When Vitti first became superintendent in 2017, the average was at 80%.
Chronic absenteeism rates for DPSCD have dropped 10 percentage points since the 2017-18 school year, from 70% to 60% for 2024-25. Meanwhile, Michigan’s chronic absenteeism rate has increased since 2017, going from 20% to 30% in 2023-24.
“There’s still more work to do with student attendance, but we’re certainly making a difference in getting students to come more regularly and declining chronic absenteeism as well,” Vitti said.
Will bikes work as an incentive for better attendance?
Chronic absenteeism continues to be an issue not only in Detroit, but statewide and nationally as schools recover from the pandemic. According to a study released last year by The Associated Press and The Detroit News, roughly 1 in 4 students in the 2022-23 school year remained chronically absent. That represents about 12 million children in the 42 states and Washington, D.C., where the data is available.
During the 2023-2024 school year, 29.5% of Michigan students were chronically absent, down from 30.8% the previous year. Michigan defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% or more of school days or 18 days or more during a 180-day school year.
Lack of transportation for families plays a significant role in why kids aren’t getting to school every day, especially in Detroit. A third of residents don’t own cars. DPSCD provides only limited school bus service, and none at all to high school students, who instead get passes to ride city buses. In the fall, there will be an exception to that rule, with the district launching a new transportation pilot program that will provide yellow school busing for students attending Henry Ford High School and East English Village @ Finney in an effort to reduce chronic absenteeism.
All Kids Bike, a national program that aims to teach kids to ride bikes by providing schools with a biking curriculum, stated that providing bicycles for students promotes their health and well-being and can boost their self-esteem while serving as a way to address chronic absenteeism.
School districts across the country have used bikes as an incentive to improve attendance.
Earlier this year, about 170 students who regularly miss school in Volusia County Schools in Florida were gifted bikes. A local hospital, AdventHealth Daytona Beach and the East Volusia Market, donated the money the district used to purchase the 168 bikes and helmets. Volusia County serves Daytona Beach and several surrounding cities.
For the Carson City School District in Nevada, Carson City Mayor Lori Bagwell launched a “Mayor’s Attendance Hall of Fame” campaign last year to help reduce chronic absenteeism. In January, the city and community partners awarded the district with six bicycles per elementary school and one bike for each middle school and high school, totaling 40 bikes. Additionally, they have provided gift cards, movie tickets, and other incentives.
During the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year, eight of the nine schools in the district saw a decline in chronic absenteeism, with two schools lowering their chronic absenteeism rate compared to pre-COVID percentages.
And in 2023, students in the Springfield Pubic Schools district in Missouri were gifted bikes through giveaways.
Board Secretary Ida Simmons-Short suggested at the meeting that the district send out a survey to parents to find out the reasons why their children are not going to school. She noted that transportation is a big issue for families.
“Even though we are the Motor City, we have a lot of parents who do not have cars,” Simmons-Short said.
Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.
