DOE blows stats on absenteeism

Department of Education staffers might benefit from some remedial math instruction.

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and the DOE vastly understated chronic-absenteeism rates at struggling city schools for two separate academic years, The Post has learned.

Addressing the state Assembly Education Committee last October, Fariña reported that chronic truancy at so-called “Renewal” schools fell from 25.3 in the 20132014 school year to 23.9 percent the following year. Those numbers were also posted in official DOE reports.

“We are closely tracking indicators that schools are moving in the right direction,” she said at the time.

The only hiccup with Fariña’s encouraging numbers is that they were both egregiously inaccurate by roughly 20 percentage points — and now critics are calling for a comprehensive audit of DOE record-keeping practices.

In reality, chronic absenteeism at Renewal schools was 47.2 percent in 2013-2014 and 43.4 percent the following year, according to a calculation of DOE data.

When presented with the discrepancies by the Post Thursday, the DOE acknowledged that its numbers were wrong and chalked up the errors to clerical flubs.

Astonished charter-school backers seized on the gaffes to rip the DOE and to demand an “immediate comptroller’s audit of the Department of Education.”

“This administration cannot be trusted to tell the truth about New York City’s schools,” said Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of Families for Excellent Schools.

Kittredge said Fariña’s presentation was a “serious, disturbing incident” intended to avoid having failing schools put under state control.

A DOE spokeswoman said official materials will now be corrected to reflect the true percentages of chronic absenteeism for those two years.

The department categorizes students as chronically truant if they miss 10 percent of the school year — roughly 18 days of class.

The DOE repeatedly disseminated the inaccurate numbers in a flurry of official reports over the last several years and in several quarterly summaries.

Mayor de Blasio has trumpeted his efforts to resuscitate 86 deeply troubled city schools rather than close them.

Fariña has stated that the most basic metric of stability at struggling campuses is attendance.