White House to tackle chronic absenteeism in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is hoping that caring mentors will help stop students from skipping school.

The Obama administration announced plans Friday to connect more than 1 million students who miss major amounts of school time with mentors in hopes of turning that around.

Part of the My Brother's Keeper program, the Success Mentors Initiative will launch in 10 cities: Austin, Boston, Columbus, Denver, Miami-Dade, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, San Antonio and Seattle.

It will begin with students in sixth through ninth grades in school districts with low incomes and high absenteeism levels and expand to kindergarten through 12th grade in five years.

As many as 7.5 million children miss a month or more of school each year, putting them at risk of falling behind and dropping out.