(HARTFORD, CT)—Chronic absenteeism is down across the state, according to new data released by the State Department of Education on Wednesday, a sign that collaborative efforts to keep students across Connecticut in school and engaged are having a positive impact.

The number of chronically absent students in Connecticut dropped to 9.6 percent in 2015-16, down from 10.6 percent the year before and down from a high of 11.5 percent in 2012-13. The decline in Connecticut’s chronic absenteeism rate means that over 10,000 more students are attending school on a daily basis than four years ago.

The data also shows that while minority students have disproportionately high rates of chronic absenteeism when compared with their white peers, rates of chronic absenteeism are decreasing for black and Hispanic students in Connecticut. In 2015-16, the chronic absenteeism rate for Hispanic students was 15.7 percent, down from 19.1 percent in 2012-13. For black students, the rate was 14.5 percent in 2015-16, down from 16 percent in 2012-13. The new data is available on the CSDE’s data portal, EdSight.