Detroit Public Schools Community District is expanding its “Perfect Attendance Pays” program this school year.
The program launched in January 2026 for high schoolers, offering $100 gift cards for every five-day period of perfect attendance — up to $1,000 over 10-weeks. Middle school parents will now receive $50 gift cards for their children’s perfect attendance under the same five-day structure. The incentives aren’t paid out on state fall or spring count days.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Michigan Capitol Confidential the program is funded through interest earned on district money set aside for facility projects, not state or federal dollars.
The superintendent credited the initiative with real results: High school chronic absenteeism dropped seven percentage points in the program’s first year and another two points the following year. He also linked it to the district’s placement in the 90th percentile nationally for reducing pandemic-era chronic absenteeism, per a recent Harvard/Stanford National Recovery Scorecard.
But the district’s enthusiasm for data-driven interventions hasn’t extended to reading policy. DPSCD opposed Michigan’s now-repealed third-grade reading retention law, which required struggling readers to repeat the grade unless they qualified for an exemption.
Michigan currently pays $23,867 per pupil in 2024-25, but the state ranks 44th for reading. What do you think: should we pay kids to attend school?
Payroll call,
Scott McClallen
CapCon Reporter and Editor
