ST. LOUIS (AP) – Education officials say Missouri schools experience widespread chronic absenteeism with more than 40,000 students in the St. Louis region and nine area counties who have missed 15 or more days of school during the 2013-14 school year.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/28T8qVa ) reports that attendance data was released this month by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office For Civil Rights and St. Louis Public Schools. According to the data, close to half of those students were in high school.

Chronic absenteeism includes truancy as well as excused absences. More than 6.5 million students nationwide were considered chronically absent in 2013-14. Of those 6.5 million student, 18 percent were in high school.