Count Day For DPS Wednesday Will Determine State Funding

DETROIT (CBS DETROIT) - Detroit Public School leaders are gearing up for Count Day Wednesday - a day in which attendance determines state funding. From pizza parties to giveaways, Emergency Manager for DPS, Jack Martin, says there will be incentives at all schools.

"We've got events at most of our schools from lunches for parents with their children, the students," said Martin. "We have people working throughout the district to make sure the kids show up at school and I'm very pleased and I hope it's not raining in the morning and we don't have the problems we had last year with 10 buildings with power outages."

"We've really got to increase enrollment so we can work to decrease the deficit," he added.

Every K-8 grade classroom with 100 percent attendance will get a free pizza party.

"We decided we would have picture day on count day," said Bunch Elementary said principal Cindy Lange," because parents always ask 'when are you having picture day?' so we decided to make sure all of our students were here in attendance"

Martin says they are on track to meeting the district's projected number of students enrolled, which is about 47,000 students. Martin says that number is down by a thousand students, from last year.