The Spatiotemporal Distribution of Asbenteeism in Elementary Schools: Its Relation to School and Neighborhood Characteristics

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Abstract

This paper examines between-school differences in the distribution of absences in NYC public elementary schools throughout one school year; how they relate to characteristics of the student body, school and community; and whether those differences follow any spatio-temporal pattern. Based on publicly available data on daily attendance, public elementary school characteristics and geolocation, and sociodemographic characteristics of census tracts where schools were located, the study used SatScan (Kulldorff, 2018) to explore spatio-temporal clusters of school absence, and examined the nesting of school absenteeism within groups or units representing spatial boundaries at various levels of aggregation. Statistically significant spatio-temporal patterns emerged varying in location and time when monthly absences peaked. Implications for the measurement of school absenteeism are discussed.

Author

• Mariajose Romero, Pace University