Detroit students can earn up to $100 per week simply by attending every class as part of an expanded program tackling chronic absenteeism.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District is bringing back its ‘Perfect Attendance Pays’ initiative for the 2026-27 school year.
High school students can receive a $100 digital Visa gift card for each qualifying week, while the program is expanding to offer middle schoolers in grades six through eight $50 per week.
Detroit pays students for perfect attendance
The incentive is expected to run in weekly cycles between January and March, when attendance typically suffers due to winter weather and seasonal illnesses.
To qualify, students must attend every class during the five-day cycle. Tardiness is permitted, but missing even one period means forfeiting that week’s payment. Excused absences also count against students, though each new week offers another chance to qualify.
Unsplash: maximilian simsonNeedless to say, being suspended for biting a sandwich into the shape of a gun or for inappropriate haircuts would nullify the perfect attendance bonus for that week.
The district previously allowed high schoolers to earn as much as $1,000 across 10 qualifying weeks, quite a decent chunk of cash for just attending class regardless of what your grades are.
According to Chalkbeat Detroit, roughly 12,800 of the district’s 15,247 high school students received at least one $100 gift card during the 2025-26 program.
High school chronic absenteeism also dropped from 64% in 2023-24 to 54% by the end of April 2026. However, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti acknowledged the payments mostly reached students who already attended regularly or were at risk of becoming chronically absent.
“It’s still not at scale getting at those students that are dramatically absent,” Vitti said.
Approximately $13.9 million of the district’s newly approved $1.1 billion budget has been allocated toward attendance incentives and other efforts to reduce absenteeism.
The unusual incentive follows other attempts to teach students about money, including a teacher who went viral for charging her third graders rent for their desks.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
