TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Public Schools reports an increase in attendance rates from the 2024-2025 academic year to the 2025-2026 academic year, rising from 87.9% to 88.8%.
Superintendent Dr. Ebony Johnson said this is the third year in a row the district has seem improvements in attendance.
“We took on this goal of increasing attendance in Tulsa public schools, because we know students going to school, it matters," said Dr. Johnson. “One percent when it comes to calculating days, that’s a lot of additional days of school I’ll just put it that way.”
The district reports the improvement remained steady at the start of the 2026-2027 academic year too — with attendance through the first 10 days across the district up this year compared to the same point in time last year.
Attendance is something Dr. Johnson takes very seriously — she's talked to 2 News before about her efforts to see changes in their attendance rates.
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"If you’re sitting at the early 80% of attendance, if you’re even at mid 80s of attendance, that is still considered a chronically absent student," said Dr. Johnson. "Chronic absenteeism basically means you’re missing 10% or more of school in a school year so we are trying to educate our families that every single day matters. Send them to school.”
The superintendent said they've created attendance teams and family teams, to identify and clear barriers that might keep a student from getting to class.
She said that outreach — and families being receptive to the help — is some of their most important work.
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“We have a dedicated team member at each site who is responsible for calling families on a consistent basis, connecting them to supports, wondering and asking where is Ebony, why isn’t she at school today, what can we do to help her?”
The district isn't stopping here though. Dr. Johnson said her goal is to get TPS to a 95% attendance rate in the coming years.
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