Washington High School Principal Ed Rathjen gave a report at the School Board meeting on Wednesday. Part of the report included a discussion on chronic absenteeism, “Our next goal is to reduce chronic absenteeism from 23% to under 20%. So we are taking some action steps, and some of these have been in place for a while. So our absences this year have dropped dramatically in August we were 18% in September and October again this is chronic absenteeism, we are at 16%. So all of the months have improved from last year.”  The goal for the year is to remain under 20% for chronic absenteeism. Iowa’s new law, effective July 1st, aims to tackle chronic absenteeism by supporting students who miss 10% or more of school days. For a 180-day school year, this means missing 18 days or more.