In measuring student attendance, the department looks at students who miss 21 or more days and students absent for 10 percent or more of the academic year. The 2021-2022 data showed that 32.3 percent of students, or more than 1 million students, were absent for 10 percent or more of the year.
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The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, December 28, 2023
Marking the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, but with a reminder of Elizabeth Kolbert’s Sixth Extinction, the Bach Festival continues, and the workweek remains at low simmer.
The Curious Joy of Being Wrong
The death of the author’s brother shattered his deeply held evangelical beliefs. This deep loss started a period of questioning in light of the evidence of the author’s experience, leading him to revise his worldview in a way that felt authentic. He changed his mind about a lot things.
Suzanne Johnston, Flagler County’s Unchallenged Tax Collector Since 1st Election in 2004, Will Not Run Again
Suzanne Johnston, Flagler County’s Tax Collector since 2004 and one of its more colorful and unchallenged elected officials, will be stepping down at the end of 2024, when she will be 75. She announced her decision in an interview with FlaglerLive this afternoon, and said she’d be supporting her second-in-command, Shelley Edmonson, for the seat in next year’s election.
From Abortion to Disney, Guns, Pot, Trans and Social Media Law: 10 Florida Court Cases to Watch in 2024
High-profile Florida cases in state and federal courts in 2024 include a challenge to the 15-week abortion ban, Disney’s claim that the DeSantis administration illegally retaliated against it, a challenge to the state’s age-restriction on buying long guns, whether the wording of a constitutional amendment legalizing recreational pot can head for the ballot, and several more.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Catch the final days of the Fantasy Lights in Town Center, the 10 days of Bach continue with the Magnificat, the history and ideological uses of Hagia Sophia, and a few words from Orhan Pamuk.
Blessings for LGBTQ+ Couples: Pope Francis’s Historic Gesture
Pope Francis’ Dec. 18, 2023, announcement that Catholic priests may bless LGBTQ+ couples and others in “irregular” situations marks a definitive shift in the Roman Catholic Church’s posture toward many types of loving relationships. It may also mark a definitive turning point within the Roman Catholic Church.
My Father’s Crèche
Taking down Christmas decorations can be difficult when they serve as buffers to memories as painful to remember as one is grateful not to have forgotten them, especially as we age: my father has been dead nearly 50 years, but that chasm of time disappears in the still-vivid hammer sounds of the crèche he built us every Christmas, and the joys of my mother’s New Year’s Day parties before lives became war zones.
‘That Was My Home’: The Homeless Are Being Purged Out of Their Encampments
More than 653,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness in 2023, a 12% increase from last year. Among the people experiencing homelessness, 64% are unsheltered. As tent encampments continue to dot urban landscapes — strewn around parks, along sidewalks, lining highways or sometimes abutting schools — many cities have increased their sweeps, some governors have announced funding to clear encampments, and several states have outlawed the tent communities altogether.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, December 26, 2023
A day for gold bricking and Bach, a few words on love, kindness, greed and rapine from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, and a few sharply drawn lines rom Clay Jones.