This year鈥檚 list of stories takes us to Chicago, where several public schools sit mostly empty due to under enrollment; to Baltimore, where students are navigating a complicated transit system to get to school, often causing them to miss their first period class; and to Austin, where tweens attend 鈥渃otillion鈥� classes that teach them how to fold a napkin, hold utensils and dance. They also tell the stories of a beloved child care worker detained by ICE, a teen who tragically fell in love with a chatbot and Black-owned barbershops that have made it their mission to get boys in their communities to fall in love with reading. And there鈥檚 more鈥�

The selections come from large national publications, as well as local news and nonprofit newsrooms. Below, in no particular order, are 19 stories our team admired most this year. We hope you take the time to read (and share) these important stories written and produced by talented education journalists in newsrooms across the country.

By , Chalkbeat, and , ProPublica

The need to close underenrolled schools has become an important storyline this year, but few areas are dealing with as many nearly-empty buildings as Chicago Public Schools. ProPublica鈥檚 Jennifer Smith Richards and Chalkbeat鈥檚 Mila Koumpilova completed an in-depth analysis of underutilized schools in the country鈥檚 fourth-largest district and found that three in 10 buildings sit half-empty. And many come with a steep per-student price tag 鈥� the highest being $93,000. Richards and Koumpilova carefully explained Chicago鈥檚 history of school closures and the tense fight between district officials, families and the teachers union about next steps. They tune into what matters most: How tiny schools 鈥� some with enrollments in the double digits 鈥� impact student opportunities and educational experience. Some students seem to thrive in a tight-knit community, but the overarching lack of resources causes challenges for everyone. 鈥淵ou try to have a homecoming, but there鈥檚 no football team,鈥� said a former principal of Hirsch High School, which has 100 students in a building that can fit 1,000. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing to come home to.鈥�

 

By The 19th 

As immigration enforcement activities have escalated over the past year, the early care and education workforce has been on edge. Immigrants represent more than 20% of the child care workforce nationwide. Chabeli Carrazana’s story for The 19th about Nicolle Orozco Forero 鈥� an immigrant child care provider who takes care of children with disabilities and was taken into ICE custody with her family 鈥� sheds light on the immense impact her detention and eventual deportation had on her community. Carrazana traces Orozco Forero鈥檚 journey: from fleeing Colombia two years earlier with her husband and sons, to searching for answers to her son鈥檚 unexplained illness to working toward her dream of opening her own child care program. Carrazana also illustrates how Orozco Forero鈥檚 rare expertise in supporting children with disabilities filled a critical gap in a field already strained by staffing shortages and limited specialized care. This story stays with you, especially the deep ripple effect of Orozco Forero鈥檚 deportation on the families and community she served.

Visuals by Eli Durst; Text by Dina Gachman, The New York Times

In Austin, tweens are attending 鈥渃otillion鈥� classes where they learn how to fold a napkin, hold utensils and dance. These aren鈥檛 essential life skills but surreptitiously the founders of the Southwest Austin Cotillion hope to teach the kids social skills and build their confidence. The strict no-electronics policy ensures the kids embrace the awkwardness of it all. It鈥檚 inspiring to see these kids put on a brave face and give way to the odd social mores 鈥� at least for a few hours. The fly on the wall black-and-white photography and spare text of this article did an excellent job illustrating the story. Kudos to producers Jolie Ruben and Josephine Sedgwick for creating an interactive experience that feels like an old Life magazine article reinvented for the web. Here, the future of storytelling borrows from the past and utilizes the latest technology where it works.

By Iowa Public Radio

Following the pandemic, school districts ramped up the use of the four-day school week to address a teacher absenteeism crisis and recruit staff at a time of severe shortages. Nicole Grundmeier with Iowa Public Radio鈥檚 Midwest Newsroom took a deep look at the trend with her August feature on how the policies have affected students. With data, research and personal stories, she captured the tough choices districts face as they weigh the benefits and drawbacks of giving staff and kids a longer weekend. Jayce Moody, who used to wander out of class and throw things in frustration, could better manage his behavior with a shorter school week. 鈥淗e no longer has to miss school for therapy and other appointments,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淛ayce jumped several levels in reading.鈥� But other families, she wrote, depend on schools for child care or food pantries to stretch meals until Monday. Grundmeier鈥檚 reporting offered a thoughtful examination of what happens before and after school boards vote on such a pivotal change to the schedule and how opting in favor of a reduced school week might not accomplish what they鈥檇 hoped it would. 

By and , The Baltimore Banner

Every day, hundreds of Baltimore middle and high schoolers are missing when the first-period bell rings 鈥� the result of a public transit system that makes it virtually impossible for as many as 25,000 students to get to class on time. Without a yellow bus system beyond elementary school, an investigation by The Baltimore Banner found, children as young as 11 crisscross the city on long, unpredictable and sometimes dangerous journeys that frequently get them to class late, or not at all. They stand in drenching rain, endure sexual harassment from strangers and witness violent fights on buses on commutes that can take 40 minutes each way on a good day 鈥� and often last twice as long. As the district doesn鈥檛 collect data on how students get to school, The Banner modeled their trips based on where they live and the school they attend. It then tracked the location of every Maryland Transit Administration bus every five seconds, 20 hours a day, and mapped those commutes using innovative, interactive graphics. The result: a poignant portrait of young people whose futures are being put at risk by the simple lack of a safe, dependable ride to school.

By , The Associated Press

Housing insecurity can be incredibly disruptive to a family鈥檚 life, especially when it comes to children鈥檚 education. To highlight this challenge, Associated Press reporter Bianca V谩zquez Toness followed an Atlanta mother as she navigated the process of finding an apartment in the right school district, keeping her son on track academically and making enough money to keep the family afloat. There’s something about how Toness opened this story that felt brilliantly relatable and illustrated how issues, like housing insecurity, can happen to anyone. Toness does a good job humanizing these vulnerable circumstances and giving a glimpse into how hard parents work and fight to make sure their children are set up for success. You can tell Toness not only earned the trust of the family she highlighted, and told their story with the utmost amount of dignity, but she also was incredibly well-informed and resourced on how complex eviction is and can be. 

By, The New York Times Magazine

Florida attorney and mother of three, Megan Garcia, has become perhaps the best-known face in the fast-emerging legal and regulatory battle over AI chatbots. After her 14-year-old son died by suicide after forming an intensely romantic and sexually explicit relationship with a Character.AI bot, Garcia sued the tech creators for wrongful death, participated in multiple interviews and testified before the U.S. Senate about the need for stronger guardrails. By giving writer Jesse Baron access to her son鈥檚 conversations with the bot that personified Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, Garcia enabled a masterful Baron to produce a gripping and illuminating account of how a lonely and often-despairing young teen can fall in love with a robot, losing the line between reality and fantasy and slipping further away from the physical world and its human relationships. It鈥檚 a harrowing descent. The Garcia case will likely be among the first to establish legal precedent around the juggernaut that is AI. Days after Barron鈥檚 story ran, Character.AI announced that it was banning those under 18 from using its chatbots. All of that comes too late for Sewell Setzer III, who truly believed that by dying he would be going home to Westeros and his one true love.

By Alvin Chang, The Pudding 

How much do children鈥檚 environment and experiences influence the rest of their life? Alvin Chang鈥檚 interactive 鈥淭his Is a Teenager鈥� tackles that question with ease 鈥� turning National Longitudinal Surveys data into conversational, visual storytelling. The project follows hundreds of teens into their late 30s, allowing viewers to dive into 24 years of circumstances and consequences. As the interactive timeline moves through the years, you can see who went to college, who stayed financially stable, who was the victim of violence, who considers themselves happy. I was absorbed for hours. The project revisits one teen in particular, called Alex, who grew up in a high-risk environment. He had a difficult home life, was bullied and held back in school. By 2021, he reported feeling depressed 鈥渕ost of the time.鈥� Yet, as Chang writes, 鈥渨e are blamed for not going to college, for being unhealthy, for being poor, for not being able to afford healthcare and food and housing.鈥� That line hit hard, especially after watching Alex鈥檚 life unfold. The equally engaging complements the piece, making decades-long data feel digestible.

By  The Hechinger Report

A report on Trump administration college admissions proposals, published earlier this month by The Hechinger Report鈥檚 Jon Marcus, may turn out to be one of the most consequential pieces of journalism of the year. 

Marcus looked at admissions data and found that while President Trump鈥檚 scrutiny largely zeroes in on race, his ban on DEI policies could harm men, notably white men, his most loyal demographic.

That鈥檚 because universities for decades have been quietly offering men, who tend to leave high school with fewer skills and lower GPAs, an advantage. While they鈥檝e historically enrolled more women than men, federal data show, they鈥檝e also admitted higher percentages of male applicants. At Baylor University, for instance, 56.8% of males who applied got in, versus. just 47.9% of females.

So while colleges may soon follow U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon鈥檚 exhortation to judge aspiring students 鈥渟olely on their merits, not their race or sex,鈥� the end result could be thousands of young men who don鈥檛 have a place in future freshman classes 鈥� a development that 鈥渄rips with irony,鈥� says one top policy wonk.

By , The Philadelphia Inquirer

Anyone who’s spent much time reading about schools will remember New York City’s “rubber room” 鈥� an archipelago of reassignment centers for hundreds of school employees awaiting arbitration for alleged professional offenses. In January, more than 15 years after journalist Steven Brill first popularized the term, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Kristen Graham gave us an account of Philadelphia’s own rubber room, a way station where some teachers and administrators spend years gathering paychecks and dust. The dispatch offers excellent texture about wasted days in what is effectively a professional prison 鈥� the long-timers graduate into the best seats, while access to extension cords is carefully negotiated 鈥� but many of the details are dispiritingly familiar: Complaints from former rubber room occupants first bubbled into a citywide scandal back in 2011. It increasingly feels like the broader subject of teacher job protections and complaint adjudication is itself akin to the rubber room, a windowless abyss to which all education journalists must eternally return.   

By , NBCU Academy

Alvin Irby, a former first grade teacher, saw an opportunity to improve literacy among Black boys while watching one of his students get a haircut. In 2013, he founded Barbershop Books, providing books for children to read while sitting in the barber鈥檚 chair and training barbers to become mentors to their young clients. Reporter Maya Brown, who was then with NBCU Academy Multimedia, provides a beautiful masterclass in visual storytelling that shows how familiar cultural settings can be used to boost literacy and reading comprehension. In Brown鈥檚 video and text package, we see students getting haircuts and walking away with a stronger motivation to read and barbers who are passionate and committed reading coaches. What excited me most about this story was knowing that Black boys across the country are being seen and supported through Barbershop Books, which is now in 60 cities across the U.S. Brown brilliantly captures how these encounters not only shape the students鈥� hairline but their education journey, too. 

By and , ProPublica 

What if the leaders put in charge of the nation鈥檚 public schools are actually rooting against them? ProPublica analyzed dozens of hours of audio and video footage of public and private speaking events 鈥� as well as writings 鈥� for Education Secretary Linda McMahon鈥檚 appointees finding 鈥渁 recurring theme is the desire to enable more families to leave public schools.鈥� and 鈥檚 story dug deep into these records to paint a vivid picture of the powerful forces that both govern and seek to dismantle public education. Every sentence was impactful and the graphics, while cartoonish and playful, powerfully illustrate each point. The voices that fill the piece were well chosen, each offering an insightful view, to a movement that started well before the current administration. For instance, Maurice T. Cunningham, a retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts provided helpful context, saying parents鈥� rights groups have long aimed 鈥渢o undermine teachers unions, protect their wealthy donors from having to contribute their fair share in taxes to strengthen public schools, and provide profit opportunities through school privatization.鈥� 

By , The Hechinger Report

In 2006, Minnesota passed a law requiring all eighth graders to take Algebra I, a move designed to boost the number of students taking calculus and eventually going into math and science careers. But an investigation by The Hechinger Report suggests it hasn鈥檛 worked as planned. Reporter Steven Yoder analyzed federal data from 2009 to 2017 and found the share of the state鈥檚 students taking calculus rose modestly, from 1.25% to 1.76%. But other states saw far larger gains, and Minnesota dropped from sixth to 10th place among states for calculus enrollment as a share of total enrollment. The state鈥檚 ranking for eighth grade math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress also fell. Yoder鈥檚 research, including visits to classrooms in one Minnesota school district, demonstrates the need for more nuance in determining who should take algebra and when.  

By , The Washington Post

You would know this compulsively readable feature was written by The Washington Post’s Casey Parks even without the byline. Parks is a master at coming to inhabit a small community, chameleon-like, and finding its social glue. In this case, it鈥檚 the lone bookstore in Vermillion, South Dakota, threatened with closure when the state legislature voted to force the 10-year-old daughter of its owners to use the boys’ bathroom at school. Five and a half years ago, Mike and Jen Phelan opened the store on Vermillion鈥檚 Main Street where, red state reputation notwithstanding, most of the brick storefronts sported Pride flags. The locals embraced the couple鈥檚 transgender daughter, with the Vermillion School Board voting in 2021 to allow her to use the girls鈥� bathroom. Which she did without incident until South Dakota鈥檚 GOP statehouse majority passed a bathroom ban this year. As the Phelans packed to move to a New England community where the girl would be affirmed, they prepared to sell the business to Nova and Elias Donstad, a trans couple. 鈥淭hey fell in love reading next to each other most evenings, and they fell for South Dakota the way many transplants did 鈥� accidentally,鈥� writes Parks. The bookworms were desperate to rescue the store, but couldn鈥檛 afford to buy it. As it happens, their neighbors couldn鈥檛 imagine Vermillion without the shop, and raised $22,000 for the couple鈥檚 down payment. 

By , CalMatters

Since The Boston Globe鈥檚 early 2000s reporting exposed widespread childhood sexual abuse in the Catholic church, similar school-based stories have proliferated. This has been made possible as states open 鈥渓ook-back鈥� windows, temporarily lifting the statute of limitations on civil abuse cases. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse I鈥檝e spoken with for my own reporting have shared the power of these windows: they provide an opportunity 鈥� albeit delayed 鈥� for justice. CalMatters Carolyn Jones鈥� reporting on California鈥檚 2020 law 鈥� which provided a three-year window for victims to file claims and made it easier to sue school districts and counties 鈥� stands out because of her ability to skillfully and thoughtfully walk a tough line: emphasizing the very real presence of sexual abuse in schools and the need to hold complicit institutions accountable, while also exposing the unintended financial consequences that can result from these windows. The story raises complex and thorny questions: Who should be held accountable for years-old sexual abuse, especially in cases where the perpetrator is dead and school district personnel have since turned over? And how can we hold the systems that failed these victims responsible, without pulling funding from current students? 

By , NPR

NPR鈥檚 November interview with photographer Melissa Ann Pinney included a trove of incredible pictures that practically jump off the page, err screen. After being granted access to two Chicago schools starting seven years ago, Pinney began taking photos in her 鈥淏ecoming Themselves鈥� series. Pinney captures incredible facial expressions and body language of what she called 鈥渙ften overlooked communities of children and teens in Chicago.鈥� Her ability to play with light and shadows adds a dimension of moodiness that feels right when teens are the subject. Each picture tells its own story with a range of emotions and experiences, including hope, fear, friendship, and love. My favorites include Lizzie Williams in her My Little Pony leggings;  Kho鈥檝ya Greenwood and her brother Coby at a prom celebration; and Jo Gonda and Andrew McDermott at the prom. Each photo is truly a gem 鈥� and Pinney鈥檚 interview adds to the experience.  

By Photographs by , The New York Times 

This year鈥檚 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act offers a stark reminder that we鈥檙e not that far removed from the days when people with intellectual and developmental disabilities were sent away to special public institutions. One of those, the Walter E. Fernald State School in Waltham, Massachusetts 鈥� 鈥渢he Fernald,鈥� as locals call it 鈥� housed John Scott, who had spina bifida and spent most of his 17 years there before his death and burial in an unmarked grave in 1973. In this heartbreaking and masterfully told story, New York Times reporter Sonia Rao describes the journey of Scott鈥檚 brother David, who was just 7 when John died, as he seeks to learn more about his brother and what happened to him. A direct appeal to the governor eventually led him to a rust-colored accordion folder filled with 70 documents about his brother鈥檚 short life. In interviews, a teacher described John as one of her brightest students and 鈥渁 little ray of sunshine.鈥� But she also spoke of what David called 鈥渁trocities鈥� at the school. 鈥淓ighty percent of the stuff I saw there, I wish I could erase from my mind,鈥� she said. That reality is especially poignant given that there were at least 10,000 unmarked graves for people like John in Massachusetts alone 鈥� and the Fernald is one of hundreds of similar institutions for people with disabilities that once dotted the national landscape.

By , Voice of San Diego

Just when you thought you鈥檇 seen every kind of shady behavior around AI and digital learning, along comes Voice of San Diego鈥檚 Jakob McWhinney with an: Would you believe that fraudsters are stealing community college students鈥� identities and enrolling in remote classes to cash in on their financial aid? McWhinney finds that thieves create 鈥渂ot students鈥� that enroll in large online classes and remain just long enough to cash in on state and federal aid. They often turn to generative AI to fake the first few assignments. McWhinney finds that one in four California community college applicants last year was a suspected bot. He offers an to help readers understand exactly how it all works. If the aid theft isn鈥檛 bad enough, he finds that the bots also bump real students from classes 鈥� and wreak havoc around enrollment. He talks to a Southwestern College professor who realizes that, two weeks into last spring鈥檚 semester, just 15 of the 104 students enrolled in her classes and a wait-list, were real. As a result, Southwestern now requires all remote students to show up face-to-face at enrollment time just to prove they鈥檙e real. 

By , NBC News

In a year that will be remembered for intensifying political extremism on the internet and a sharp increase in political violence in the physical world, investigative reporter Tyler Kingkade of NBC News surfaces a compelling tale of what happens when everyday people find themselves in the crosshairs of the culture wars. After Charlie Kirk鈥檚 murder led to government-endorsed revenge against the far-right pundit鈥檚 critics, Kingkade highlighted how a small school district in Arizona was thrust into a campus safety crisis after an online disinformation campaign falsely accused teachers of celebrating his death. The lie, which centered on a costume worn by math teachers, was perpetuated by conservative influencers and Republican lawmakers. The resulting firestorm offers clear evidence that online vitriol can destabilize public safety 鈥� including in schools.

The resistance 鈥� born online through group chats and spreadsheets 鈥� has culminated in a highly coordinated effort to expose federal immigration agents and ensure vulnerable students safe passage to and from school, among other efforts. 

Marissa Bejarano, a middle and high school teacher in southeast Louisiana, is a part of this movement, attending word-of-mouth meetings 鈥� participants are asked not to post them on social media 鈥� to learn how best to protect those most impacted by Trump鈥檚 dragnet. 

The administration began its promised crackdown in New Orleans last Wednesday in operation “.” 

鈥淔or me, it feels like my nervous system is part of a collective,鈥� Bejarano told 社区黑料. 鈥淲e are connected by fear, uncertainty and the grief of not being able to rely on the future. But going to a community meeting really pulled me out of my sadness. I walked in overwhelmed but left feeling supported by a group of strangers that want to protect our immigrant community. It鈥檚 so important that no one isolates.鈥�

Bejarano, who is Mexican-American, said she spoke to a mother Thursday who had gone into hiding. The teacher was able to offer her and her children assistance and reassurance.

鈥淪he was so relieved to talk to me, to have someone listen,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e were able to get her groceries, discuss a plan for her kids and now she has a local contact that she can reach out to when necessary.鈥�

Resistance efforts in other cities have included parents in Washington, D.C., forming 鈥渨alking school buses鈥� and teachers in spending their mornings scouring their community for immigration agents so they can send out a warning. In Chicago, where the confrontations have , started meal trains, ride-share programs and legal defense funds.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, denied DHS enforcement has endangered students and families, maintaining instead that organized opposition has imperiled law enforcement.

鈥淟et me be extremely clear for all media: We are NOT targeting schools,鈥� she said in an email Friday morning. 鈥淭his assertion is an abject lie. The media is sadly attempting to create a climate of fear and smear law enforcement. These smears are contributing to our ICE law enforcement officers facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them.鈥�

But many children and their families have been detained on or near school grounds since the department, through its Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection arms, began a mass deportation campaign in late spring.

Cristal Medina, 17 and who attends Charlotte鈥檚 East Mecklenburg High School, knows the risks better than anyone. Her father, Yasser Ricardo Gomez Flores, born in Nicaragua, was detained in October after delivering her to school. 

He now sits in a Georgia detention center awaiting possible deportation.

鈥淗e was detained on Oct. 21, right after dropping me off,鈥� said Medina, who is in the 11th grade. 鈥淎 group of cars surrounded him and stopped him as he was preparing to cross the bridge near East Meck. He left his van and my mom picked it up soon after.鈥� 

Medina was one of hundreds of students who walked out of class Nov. 18, just a few days after immigration enforcement agents and clashing with demonstrators. 

鈥淢y father is not a criminal,鈥� Medina told her classmates at an on-campus rally. 鈥淗e is a responsible and hardworking man who has dedicated himself to his company, showing up every day and contributing to this country. He paid his taxes. He followed the rules. He built a life here with dignity and honesty. All he ever asked for was a chance 鈥� a chance to make his dream real: to see me walk across the graduation stage, and to watch me grow into the professional I aspire to become. That dream should not be denied.鈥�

Amiin Harun, an immigration attorney who represents many Somalis in Minneapolis, said his phone has been ringing nonstop since Trump鈥檚 recent rants against his community, with the president calling its members

鈥淚t is emanating from the highest office in the land,鈥� Harun told 社区黑料. 鈥淭he most powerful man in the world is attacking one of the smallest communities in this country. It鈥檚 insane.鈥�  

Federal agents flooded the Twin Cities last week: following the administration鈥檚 order to target undocumented Somalis. 

One American-born woman of Somali descent was reportedly in the ongoing sweep.聽

Harun notes local Somalis are asking members of the Hispanic community 鈥� until now, 鈥� how to defend themselves, strategizing inside mosques, churches, community centers, on Zoom, Whatsapp and other online forums.   

Harun, who also chairs the board of the has already advised staff on what to do if ICE seeks to enter its grounds: 鈥淟ock the door, and tell them no.鈥�

In Charlotte, Juan Diego 鈥淛.D.鈥� Mazuera Arias, a formerly undocumented resident himself, is now trained to spot and verify the presence of federal immigration agents before alerting others online.

He said that while the Customs and Border Patrol officers leading operation 鈥溾�� might have come to spark fear, they ignited something else.

鈥淲e made a web of our own,鈥� Arias told 社区黑料. 鈥淥ne that protected us and that was woven by love, unity, community and laughter. In spite of fear, despair, anxiety and confusion, we always find a way to show the world who we are.鈥�

Anti-ICE efforts have extended well beyond the schoolhouse. Protesters raid in Chinatown in late November, hurling sidewalk planters into the street to block agents鈥� path. And Long Islanders gathered in bitter temperatures this past weekend to demand Suffolk County , which has been training agents at a gun range there for decades 鈥� and is now heavily patrolling its streets. 

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker new rules restricting immigration enforcement outside states courthouses and making it easier for residents to sue immigration agents for alleged civil rights violations. The Democratic governor said the measures would “

While pushback against the federal government’s mass deportation campaign has also sometimes , a steady undercurrent of dread is prompting many parents to keep their children at home and to avoid high-risk drop-off and pick-up times.

Student absences in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg School District after agents arrived. 

Senior Zara Taty started to organize her classmates on the same day the enforcement operation began, creating a Group Meet chat with 25 people that grew to nearly 300 in a matter of days. Students used the forum to support immigrant families any way they could, including through the walkout where they chanted, 鈥淣o hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.鈥�

鈥淚 know right now we are frustrated, mad, sad, worried, scared and confused,鈥� Taty told rally attendees. 鈥淚 think it is important to remember that during these difficult times the most important thing to do is to stick together, to respect one another, to show empathy and show love.鈥�

Across the country in Los Angeles, school children are walking to campus in groups and hoping for strength in numbers. Los Angeles Unified School District families are also organizing food drives to feed their immigrant neighbors who can no longer work because of fear of deportation, an LAUSD teacher told 社区黑料. The educator, who said ICE was outside her school in mid-October, asked not to be identified because of her own immigration status. 

She said teachers have been trained in helping parents create family preparedness plans in case they are detained or deported. She鈥檚 also pushing the district, which has pledged to block ICE enforcement action, to take an even more proactive role in keeping kids safe, perhaps by having schools go into lockdown when immigration agents are nearby.

Aggressive enforcement actions have caused students鈥� grades to plummet 鈥� and it鈥檚 not just immigrant kids, she said, but the entire student body.

鈥淪tudents are exhausted,鈥� she said. 鈥淭heir hearts, their minds, their souls are exhausted. And our parents are scared that they’re not going to see their kids again. It’s honestly horrific, and it’s insane because it’s been happening for so long.鈥�

Alejandra V谩zquez Baur, a fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, is director of the , a coalition of more than 150 educators, researchers and advocates from 35 states. 

She said she鈥檚 pleased to see how organized the resistance movement has become, including in California, where parents are, for example, driving half their kids’ soccer team to tournaments because others 鈥渄on鈥檛 feel safe leaving their home and they don鈥檛 want their child not to have the opportunity to engage in extracurriculars.鈥�

But no matter how much support communities show, she said, children are living through a harrowing era. 

鈥淭his is going to be a moment that many kids remember for their lifetimes,鈥� she said.

The Detroit school district has limited yellow bus service, and none for most high school students. Like , the 17-year-old鈥檚 family car. Riding city buses to Davis Aerospace Technical High School is Holiday鈥檚 only option, but 鈥� with delays and missed buses 鈥� it .

Last year, Holiday received a gift from his school that made the trek easier: a bicycle.

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Principal Michelle Davis gave every student at the school a bike as part of a holistic approach to reducing chronic absenteeism. The bikes were funded through community donations.

Many of the nearly 100 students at Davis Aerospace last year said the bicycles helped them safely get to school by reducing the amount of time they had to walk to school or wait for buses. Others said the bikes gave them a new sense of independence, allowing them to travel around the city with their friends, get to after-school activities or jobs, and get exercise.

While Davis believes the bicycles improved attendance during good weather in the fall and spring, she said it鈥檚 only one measure the school is taking to get kids to class.

鈥淕iving the students bikes is just one problem that we鈥檝e solved for,鈥� Davis told Chalkbeat. 鈥淲hat we do intentionally is solve for all of the problems that the kids have, because that has to be our major responsibility.鈥�

The principal wanted her students to feel the same sense of independence she did as a teen when her mother bought her a pink Huffy.

So, Davis wrote 鈥渂ikes鈥� at the top of a white board next to her desk that lists her 鈥渂ig ideas.鈥� And soon the vision came to fruition.

Other high schools in the district may also soon give bikes to their students. Last school year, the district surveyed high school students who were chronically absent about why they missed too much school. Some of the students said having a bike would help improve their attendance.

After the district鈥檚 school board , some members said they wanted the superintendent to follow up on whether a stock of 鈥渄ozens鈥� of bicycles in a storage warehouse could be used for that purpose.

Can bikes reduce chronic absenteeism in Detroit?

Chronic absenteeism, defined for Michigan students as missing 10% of the school year, has long been a problem in DPSCD. Issues such as high rates of poverty, , , and keep many children from missing crucial instructional time.

Students at Davis Aerospace say the bikes have helped address some of those barriers.

Holiday, for example, said his bike allows him to get to bus stops more quickly.

The first bus Holiday usually rides is regularly late by 20 minutes to an hour, he said.

If that bus doesn鈥檛 come in time, the teen has to decide whether he鈥檒l go to another stop to try and catch a bus on a different route.

鈥淚 might miss those if I walk too slow, or I might be tired from trying to run to make it there,鈥� he said.

Now, if the bus that runs on Plymouth Road doesn鈥檛 arrive, the teen can ride his bike to another stop. Or if Holiday isn鈥檛 able to catch a transfer due to delays, he can ride his bike the rest of the way to school.

鈥淲ith the bike, I can still make up the distance or go to a different street to get on a different bus and still make it there on time,鈥� he said.

His bike also makes him feel safer.

While violent crime rates have in recent years, many young people . Their sense of safety is shaped by many factors, including .

鈥淎 bike in itself is protection,鈥� said Holiday. 鈥淵ou can use that to get away from the situation. You can use that as a barrier between you and something coming at you in the heat of the moment. You can even throw it.鈥�

The bikes also help students left without a ride because their parents have to get younger kids to school earlier in the morning.

Myron Dean, a senior at Davis Aerospace, said while his parents take his five younger siblings to their schools, he has to get to school on his own.

With a bike, Dean can get to school in about seven minutes.

Dean is also using the bike to get to driver鈥檚 education classes so he can eventually drive himself and his siblings anywhere they need to go.

Junior Tryve Roberts said when no one in his family was able to give him a ride, he used to have to walk to school. It took about an hour, which would make him tardy.

Now, since he can get to school on the bike in about 16 minutes, he鈥檚 showing up on time more often.

and in other parts of the country suggest bicycles alone may reduce chronic absenteeism. Those who support the idea say using bikes to get to school gives more students access to transportation they otherwise wouldn鈥檛 have, can improve their health and well-being, and adds motivation for kids to improve attendance.

However, the successful examples proponents cite are in parts of the country with warmer climates, such as Florida, Tennessee, and Arizona.

At Davis Aerospace, the students are taught bike safety and instructed to not ride to school in poor weather conditions or during the winter.

There are nearly 165 miles of bike lanes in the city, , but not every neighborhood in the city has access to continuous dedicated bike paths.

Creating a culture of good attendance

DPSCD has made strides in in recent years. Several schools in the district have in reducing absenteeism.

At Davis Aerospace, the chronic absenteeism rate dropped by more than 14 percentage points last school year compared to 2023-24. Since 2018-19, the chronic absenteeism rate at the school fell by nearly 23 percentage points.

Even with that progress, more than 42% of Davis Aerospace students missed too many days of school last year. And the problem is more persistent in the district鈥檚 neighborhood schools.

For example, Denby High School, which is also on the east side of the city, had a chronic absenteeism rate of nearly 80% last year.

Some of Davis Aerospace鈥檚 progress may be due in part to the bikes, but the school had already been making steady progress in reducing absenteeism before that program.

鈥淲hat we know is that there鈥檚 not just one thing that鈥檚 going to decrease absenteeism,鈥� said Davis. 鈥淓very kid that has a barrier for attendance, we talk to those students. We see what the barriers are, and we solve for the student and their challenge to getting to school.鈥�

At the school, which requires an application for students to attend, reducing absenteeism is ingrained in the culture.

A poster hanging on a brick wall by the school entrance tracks the daily attendance rate of each grade. Students who miss two days or fewer in the class with the highest attendance each month get rewards like cookies, nachos, or a movie day.

A room on the first floor of the school looks like a clothing boutique, except the clothes 鈥渇or sale鈥� are all marked 鈥�100% free.鈥� Kids can grab the things they need to show up to school, like winter coats, gloves, and new shoes.

In another space, kids can get the hygiene products they need to show up ready to learn. There鈥檚 also a washer and dryer in the school where students can clean their clothes.

Davis said there are discussions around creating a parent carpool for kids who live near each other.

鈥楢 form of freedom鈥�

The gift of the bikes was not simply a pragmatic attempt to reduce absenteeism, said Davis. It was an act of love.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e a teenager, bikes are your first form of transportation, right?鈥� Davis said. 鈥淚t gives you a form of freedom. You explore the world with your bike.鈥�

Junior Roderic Pippen said his bike helped him find a new hobby.

鈥淚 like to adventure on the bike 鈥� find new places to be at,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y bike trips are more fun than just sitting in the car, scrolling on the internet.鈥�

Holiday will use his bike this year to attend biweekly events by the , a mentorship and college readiness nonprofit.

Before they got bikes, seniors Savannah Robinson and Ciana Carter felt stuck at home during summer breaks because their parents were busy with work.

Last summer, the girls had the freedom to ride to meet up and go to places like the beauty supply store and restaurants.

鈥淎nytime she had a bad day over summer, I鈥檇 be like, come on, girl, let鈥檚 go ride our bikes and get fresh air,鈥� said Robinson. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 really helpful for both of us.鈥�

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

In Kern County, the first rule in counting homeless students is not saying 鈥渉omeless.鈥�

Instead, school staff use phrases like 鈥渟truggling with stable housing鈥� or 鈥渇amilies in transition.鈥� The approach seems to have worked: More families are sharing their housing status with their children鈥檚 schools, which means more students are getting services.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of stigma attached to the word 鈥榟omeless,鈥欌�� said Curt Williams, director of homeless and foster youth services for the Kern County Office of Education. 鈥淲hen you remove that word, it all changes.鈥�

Largely as a result of better identification methods, Kern County saw its homeless student population jump 10% last year, to 7,200. Those students received transportation to and from school, free school supplies, tutoring and other services intended to help them stay in school. For the purposes of this data, the definition of homelessness is broader than .

The trend is reflected statewide. In the latest state enrollment data released last month, California had 230,443 homeless students 鈥� a 9.3% increase from the previous year. Some of the increase is due to the state鈥檚 ongoing housing shortage, but most of the increase is because of better identification, advocates and school officials said.

Homeless students face numerous obstacles in school. They have higher rates of discipline and absenteeism, and fare worse academically. Last year, only 16% of homeless students met the , some of the lowest scores of any student group.

鈥淪chools can鈥檛 solve homelessness, but they can ensure the students are safe in the classroom and getting the education they need to get out of homelessness,鈥� said Barbara Duffield, executive director of Schoolhouse Connection, a national homeless youth advocacy group. 鈥淭hat starts with identifying the child who鈥檚 homeless.鈥�

Challenges of counting homeless students

Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, schools are required to count their homeless students throughout the school year and ensure they receive services. Homeless students also have the right to stay enrolled in their original school even if they move.

For many years, schools struggled to identify homeless students. Under state law, schools must at the beginning of the school year asking families where they live 鈥� in their own homes, in motels, doubled-up with other families, in shelters, cars or outdoors.

Some schools were less-than-diligent about collecting the form, or reassuring families understood the importance. Often, homeless families were reluctant to submit the form because they were afraid the school might contact a child welfare agency. Immigrant families sometimes feared the school might notify immigration authorities. And some families didn鈥檛 realize that sharing quarters with another family 鈥� by far the most common living situation among homeless families 鈥� is technically defined as homeless, at least under McKinney-Vento.

A 2021 by former Assemblymember Luz Rivas, a Democrat from Arleta in the San Fernando Valley, sought to fix that problem. The bill requires schools to train everyone who works with students 鈥� from bus drivers to cafeteria workers to teachers 鈥� on how to recognize potential signs of homelessness. That could include families who move frequently or don鈥檛 reply to school correspondence.

The bill seems to have helped. Last year, the state identified 21,000 more homeless students than it had the previous year, even as overall enrollment dropped.

Still, that鈥檚 probably an undercount, researchers said. The actual homeless student population is probably between 5% and10% of those students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, according to the National Center for Homeless Education. In California, that would be a shortfall of up to 138,713 students.

Influx of funding

Another boost for identifying homeless students came from the American Rescue Plan, the federal COVID-19 relief package. The plan included $800 million for schools to hire counselors or train existing staff to help homeless students. Nearly all schools in California received some money.

About 120 districts in California won grant money through the McKinney-Vento Act, which last year dispersed about $15.9 million in California to pay for things like rides to school, backpacks, staff and other services. Districts are chosen on a competitive basis; not all districts that apply receive funds.

But those funding sources are drying up. Most of the pandemic relief money has already been spent, and President Donald Trump鈥檚 recently approved budget does not include McKinney-Vento funding for 2026-27.

The cuts come at a time when advocates expect steep increases in the number of homeless families over the next few years, due in part to national policy changes. Republican budget proposals include cuts to Medicaid, food assistance and other programs aimed at helping low-income families, while the immigration crackdown has left thousands of families afraid to seek assistance. For families living on tight budgets, those cuts could lead to a loss of housing.

And in California, the shortage of affordable housing continues to be a hurdle for low-income families. Even Kern County, which has traditionally been a less pricey option for families, has seen a as more residents move there from Los Angeles.

Joseph Bishop, an education professor at UCLA and co-author of a on homeless students nationwide, said the loss of government funding will be devastating for homeless students.

鈥淐alifornia is the epicenter of the homeless student crisis, and we need targeted, dedicated support,鈥� Bishop said. 鈥淔olks should be extremely alarmed right now. Will these kids be getting the education they need and deserve?鈥�

Better food, cleaner bathrooms

In Kern County, identification has only been one part of the effort to help homeless students thrive in school. Schools also try to pair them with tutors and mentors, give them school supplies and laundry tokens, and invite them to join a program called Student Voice Ambassadors. There, students can tour local colleges, learn leadership skills and explore career options.

As part of the program, staff ask students what would make school more enticing 鈥� and then make sure the suggestions happen. At one school, students said they鈥檇 go to class if the bathrooms were cleaner. So staff improved the bathrooms. At another school, students wanted better food. They got it.

Williams credits the program with reducing absenteeism among homeless students. Two years ago, 45% of Kern County鈥檚 homeless students were chronically absent. Last year, the number dropped to 39% 鈥� still too high, he said, but a significant improvement.

鈥淲ithout McKinney-Vento funds, the Student Voice Ambassador program would go away,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淗ow will we keep it going? I don鈥檛 know.鈥�

This article was and was republished under the license.

A new Indiana law to address chronic absenteeism in K-12 schools is now in effect, but Hoosier education officials 鈥� and at least one state senator 鈥� say online misinformation has mischaracterized what the policy actually does.

, which took effect July 1, seeks to improve how schools report student absences to the Indiana Department of Education. 

The also requires IDOE to publish clearer statewide attendance definitions and guidance for monitoring student participation, as well as a new list of best practices for local districts to employ.

But Sen. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, emphasized Tuesday that the new law does not change how local schools define or enforce their own attendance policies, nor does it expand the state鈥檚 authority to penalize families.Sen. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, on Organization Day 2024. (Leslie Bonilla Mu帽iz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

A series of highly-circulated social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and X claim the law strips away protections for vulnerable students.

The posts suggest that schools can report students as habitually truant 鈥渞egardless of circumstance,鈥� and that families affected by homelessness, chronic illness or trauma could be referred to the local prosecutor or child protective services if a child misses at least 10 days of school 鈥� excused or unexcused.

Zay said that description isn鈥檛 accurate, however.

鈥淭here has been a great deal of inaccurate information spread about this bill online in recent weeks,鈥� Zay said in an email to his constituents.

鈥淚t is important to know local school districts are retaining their flexibility to decide what counts as an excused or unexcused absence for their students,鈥� he continued. 鈥淪EA 482 merely improves the way school administrations report absentee data to the state so policymakers can get a better idea of why students miss school, which is very important since one in five Hoosier students are chronically absent and missing 10% of the school year.鈥�

What the new law does

The law directs schools to more consistently track and report data related to absenteeism so state officials can better understand and respond to the problem.

Under the law, 鈥渃hronic absenteeism鈥� is now clearly defined as missing at least 10% of instructional days in a school year for any reason, regardless of whether it is excused. That鈥檚 equal to about 18 absences per school year.

But local discretion also hasn鈥檛 changed. School districts still largely determine where absences fall within three official categories:

• Excused absences include illness with a note, funerals, religious observances, college visits, court appearances, and other reasons permitted by district policy. Schools set their own specific policies but must document these absences with appropriate verification, per IDOE guidelines.
• Unexcused absences include skipping school, family vacations not approved in advance, or failing to provide documentation for otherwise excusable reasons. These absences count toward truancy thresholds and may trigger attendance interventions.
• Exempt absences are those required or protected by state or federal law and do not count against a student鈥檚 attendance record. These include jury duty, election service, military obligations, foster care court proceedings, or serving as a legislative page. House Enrolled Act 1660, passed during the 2025 session, further excuses student absences for participation in educational events organized by Future Farmers of America or 4-H.

If a student is expected to miss at least 20 instructional days in a school year due to a medical condition or injury, Indiana law additionally requires the school to provide instruction 鈥� but only if a parent submits documentation from a licensed healthcare provider. Schools use that information to develop an educational plan for the student. 

If a student has a documented disability, the team responsible for Individualized Education Programs 鈥� IEPs 鈥� determines how services should be provided during absences.

tracking all students鈥� attendance monthly, with intervention triggers at five total absences, excused or unexcused. Suggested supports include attendance contracts, staff mentoring, family outreach, and referrals for addressing barriers like transportation or health care.

More 鈥榠nterventions鈥� with parents encouraged

The new law allows local prosecuting attorneys to hold 鈥渋ntervention meetings鈥� with parents to help improve a student鈥檚 attendance before any legal action is taken, but they鈥檙e not required to do so.

Zay clarified, though, that the law does not require a parent meeting for students with excused absences, and county prosecutors are not notified about a student鈥檚 absence if they are excused.

That鈥檚 different from cases of 鈥渉abitual truancy,鈥� which was in Indiana law as 10 or more days without an excuse. 

State statute requires superintendents or attendance officers to report a student who is habitually absent from school to the local prosecuting attorney. Prosecuting attorneys must then notify parents if an affidavit of habitual truancy is filed with their office.

Until July 1, 2026, K-8 students also can鈥檛 be expelled 鈥渟olely because the student is chronically absent or habitually truant.鈥� After that date, however, students could be removed from school once again if they miss too many days of class.

Hoosier education officials as a growing, statewide concern in recent years 鈥� and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Roughly one in five Indiana students 鈥� roughly 219,00 kids 鈥� were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year, with higher rates among students of color, students with disabilities, and those from low-income families, . 

New statistics for the 2024-25 academy year are expected to be released this fall, along with for schools to prevent chronic absenteeism and promote attendance.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.

As Texas schools face at least $600 million in federal funding cuts, multiple mental health programs, particularly those implemented in response to the pandemic and mass shootings, are at risk of losing funding.

School programs focused on chronic absenteeism, mental wellness and crisis services that were created in response to the Uvalde school shooting, as well as social workers and counselors, could all be on the chopping block.

Texas schools rely heavily on federal funding to support mental health programs. Data shows that two federal programs that are of being cut or account for 86% of the school mental health funding for more than 2,500 campuses statewide, according to Mental Health America of Greater Houston.

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Bracing also for the impending expiration of COVID-19 relief funding, school districts and advocacy groups this legislative session had pushed for more money through a dedicated funding source for school mental health, but lawmakers did not approve it.

Currently, such funding is combined with school safety in the so-called school safety allotment in the state school funding formula, and school districts tend to prioritize the allotment on school security.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to get into a situation where I am asking, do I hire a police officer or do I hire a counselor? I want them both,鈥� said Adrian Johnson, superintendent for the Hearne school district.

The funding cuts and lack of progress on getting a statewide dedicated funding stream for mental health comes at a time when g. The special legislative session starts July 21, but Gov. Greg Abbott has not assigned school mental health as a directive to lawmakers.

The funding crisis

Created in response to Uvalde, the federal helps fund two grant programs in Texas, the and the . The former implements mental health training and support in 60 high-needs districts and the latter helps 98 public school districts with case management tools that identify struggling students, as well as mental health personnel.

Almost three years later, the Safer Communities Act is losing over $1 billion spread across the country. Funds that were supposed to last until 2027 are expected to dry up by the end of this year.

This cut puts programs like , which deploys evidence-based mental health resources in three Central Texas school districts, at risk. The state homed in on those school districts because of their higher rates of community impacts from the pandemic and high rates of population growth.

The cut to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is just one in a series of proposed changes to federal funding for public education that will impact how mental health is addressed in schools.

According to an analysis from the , the freezing of five other federal programs that support public schools are expected to result in the withholding of approximately $600 million from Texas, more than 16.1% of the state鈥檚 federal K-12 funding. These funds have been used for a variety of services such as English language instruction and literacy, but also after school programs and summer programs focused on mental wellness.

Medicaid and CHIP are also facing cuts in the federal spending bill passed earlier this month, and both provide each year to school districts and local mental health authorities, enabling them to hire and retain mental health providers, offer preventive mental health screenings, and support students with disabilities using specialized services.

Separately, COVID-19 funds are set to expire this year t, forcing some smaller schools to lay off staff or find alternative ways to keep the social workers and counselors hired during the pandemic.

The confluence of these cuts come as Texas lawmakers missed opportunities to properly fund school mental health this year.

During the legislative session that ended in June, Texas lawmakers agreed on a robust that adds $8.5 billion to the state鈥檚 public school system. However, most of it has been earmarked for teacher pay; with roughly $250 million being set aside for school support staff and mental health support staff are not necessarily included in the pay raise.

Over 70% of the schools that sustainable funding for school-based mental health staff and professional school counselors was the main barrier to having adequate resources to address student mental health needs, according to a survey of 2,690 schools by the .

鈥淲e are hopeful that this will translate to more dollars for mental health. But without any legislation currently earmarking those dollars, that is not a guarantee,鈥� Rebecca Fowler, the director of public policy and government affairs at Mental Health America of Greater Houston, said about the new school funding.

In 2023, wrote to the Texas Legislature, urging the creation and funding of a separate 鈥渟tudent mental health allotment鈥� because programs were not reaching enough students.

Only 13% of schools used the school safety allotment for mental health supports, according to the

by Rep. , D-Dallas, attempted to secure dedicated mental health funds, but it did not pass this year.

鈥淯ncertainty around different funding streams makes it hard to navigate these conversations about the future of mental health and young people,鈥� said Kate Murphy, director of child protection policy for Texans Care for Children.

Changing conversations

After the devastating school shootings in Uvalde and Santa Fe compelled lawmakers to prioritize mental health, such support has waned in the last few years. Mental health advocates have pointed the blame at the culture war happening in the Capitol, namely that lawmakers have suggested mental health programs in schools are diagnosing children and reinforcing LGBTQ identities without parental consent.

For example, by Sen. , R-Brenham, would have required parental consent for any psychological or psychiatric examination, testing, or treatment conducted on a student by a school employee. The bill had eight senators as sponsors, and although it died in the less conservative Texas House, it demonstrates the shift in the legislative conversation surrounding school mental health.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there is a uniform understanding of the role of behavioral health in public schools. Who should be providing support? When should support happen?鈥� Seth Winick, director of the , said.

Johnson, the Hearne superintendent, said he understands parents鈥� concerns but says schools are the best place to address mental health issues for Texas families who might not have the income or time to schedule mental health services. Until a better solution is proposed, school mental health needs support, he said.

鈥淲e have students pre-K through 12 sitting in the school system for 180 plus days a year, and we should take advantage of that by not only giving them a strong educational foundation but a strong mental health foundation,鈥� he said.

What does the future hold?

Without federal funding support, school districts will have to get creative in addressing mental wellness within their walls.

Johnson said his school district is focusing on partnerships not only with local mental health authorities and health agencies, but also with other school districts. He said his district shares staff and cut costs by joining in on a special education cooperative with four other districts and can be modeled in other parts of the state.

鈥淲e have 700 kids, a neighboring district might have 600 kids, and another district may have 150; we have to learn to work together to help lower some of the costs during these budget cuts.鈥�

Collaboration is necessary, Johnson said, but even that is at risk under current funding restrictions.

Some schools are unable to expand partnerships with programs like , which directly works with students to provide mental health support and address chronic absenteeism.

鈥淐IS is currently serving two campuses in our district, but we would definitely expand to have CIS serve all of our campuses if we had a state funded allotment that would help the district provide the matching funding that is needed to partner with CIS,鈥� Chris Smith, superintendent of the Brownfield school district, said. 鈥淲e just don鈥檛 have the funding available.鈥�

Rural and smaller schools also face laying off social workers and psychologists hired during the pandemic and eliminating programs to ensure they can retain teachers through raises instead.

鈥淲e are adopting a budget this year that鈥檚 probably going to have a $2 million deficit. We are dedicated to making sure mental health services are available and luckily have been able to sustain through partnerships, but it has been tough times with the economy, and schools are struggling to keep up with costs,鈥� Smith said.

The endless loop of putting mental health on the back burner until tragedy hits is unsustainable, according to education advocates, who say it鈥檚 time for funding dedicated to school mental health.

鈥淚 would like to have funding similar to what they said with police officers. You have to have a police officer on every campus, but that costs money yearly, and they provide. We should be doing the same with social workers and psychologists,鈥� Johnson said.

Disclosure: Texans Care for Children has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete .

This article originally appeared in ,聽a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Perhaps you already knew that?

In a series of posts in 2020 and 2021, I wrote about the research on past educational disruptions and predicted what they might mean for children going through COVID-19.

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the pandemic. What have we learned since then? Here鈥檚 my analysis of what I got right and what I got wrong:

Prediction No. 1: Lost learning time will translate into lost learning.

As I wrote in 2021, 鈥� and sometimes even after a disruption in schooling, researchers are able to detect noticeable differences in student outcomes.鈥�

COVID’s effects were so large that they showed up immediately. And they were worse for students who missed more school. For example, a recent in Nature concluded that, 鈥渃ountries with the shortest closures experienced relatively small losses鈥� and 鈥渃ountries with the longest closures, experienced losses of 鈥� 9 to 12 months of learning.鈥� Here in the States, a team of researchers led by University of Washington economist Dan Goldhaber that remote instruction was the 鈥減rimary driver of widening achievement gaps.鈥�

Predictions No. 2 and 3: The losses are likely to be large. Their full extent may not show up immediately, but small losses can grow over time.

In 2020 and 2021, I was looking at localized events like an earthquake in Pakistan or teacher strikes in Argentina. Researchers found noticeable negative effects from these events, but there was no modern precedent for the scale and length of the COVID-related disruptions.

Here in the States, the average student by the equivalent of half a grade level in math and one-third of a grade level in reading. Today, with federal COVID funding ending, student performance is still far below where it was.

Prediction No. 4: Learning losses are likely to be larger in younger children.

Based on prior research, I anticipated that kids in middle school and high school might transition to remote learning better than their younger siblings. But it鈥檚 hard to know which age group ultimately struggled the most. scores for high schoolers fell to 30-year lows, but so did fourth and eighth grade math and reading scores. Curriculum Associates data point to ongoing gaps among younger kids, while NWEA data middle schoolers are the furthest behind. In other words, there鈥檚 no biggest loser here; achievement is down across the board.  

Prediction No. 5: Math scores are likely to drop the most.

Math skills are generally picked up at school, while in English Language Arts, proficiency is more closely linked to a student鈥檚 home environment. That shows up in the data: Math scores declined more when students were learning remotely and have shown more signs of recovery since then.

Meanwhile, reading scores have continued to decline. That could partly reflect broader societal trends, but state leaders should be looking toward Mississippi and other Southern states for ideas on how to get those back on track.

Prediction No. 6: Beyond academic losses, students are at risk of disconnecting from education.

In 1916, schools in many parts of the country closed for weeks in the midst of a polio outbreak. Researchers later that those shutdowns caused some students to drop out of school and never return.

More than a century later, COVID magnified this to an extreme, changing the relationship kids had with school and leading to in chronic absenteeism. While those rates have come down a bit from their highs in 2022, I didn鈥檛 anticipate just how much COVID would break cultural norms around school attendance, and how hard it would be for schools to restore those (good) habits.

Prediction No, 7: Higher-income students may not suffer any noticeable effects.

I underappreciated how much a district鈥檚 decisions about in-person versus remote schooling would have on all students. The Goldhaber found that, 鈥渆ven at low-poverty (high income) schools, students fell behind growth expectations when their schools went remote or hybrid.鈥�

Still, higher-income and higher-performing students have managed the post-pandemic recovery better than others. For example, in eighth-grade math, the top 10% of students made noticeable gains from 2022 to 2024, while scores continued to fall for lower-performing students. At the high school level, the percentage of students who took and passed an Advanced Placement test dipped in the wake of COVID but has pre-pandemic levels. Similarly, the of high school students who are also taking credit-bearing college courses is hitting all-time highs. In other words, even as average achievement scores are down, many more high school students are finding ways to take more advanced courses.

However, this leads to 鈥�

Prediction No. 8: Low-income and disadvantaged students will suffer the biggest losses.

The virus may have been the same, but it did not affect everyone equally. As I last year, all kids missed more school in the wake of the pandemic, but those increases varied substantially. For example, the kids with the best attendance records missed about one extra day of school per year, while the kids with the worst absentee rates missed multiple weeks worth of school time.

The same trends appear in achievement scores: The bottom has fallen out across a variety of  tests, grades and subjects.

Prediction No 9: The COVID-induced recession will affect children, families and schools in many ways.

The pandemic鈥檚 effects on students have the potential to be long-lasting. For example, the of teacher strikes in Argentina found that the children of strike-affected students were more likely than their peers to be held back in school. That is, the effects passed on to later generations.

But beyond the students themselves, no one could have anticipated all the downstream effects of the COVID school closures. They are at least part of the story behind public school enrollment declines, families moving  away from and , and declining satisfaction with the nation鈥檚 public schools, not to mention political realignments.

Prediction No. 10: Without any action, the losses are likely to have long-term consequences.

To its credit, Congress provided states and school districts with $190 billion in 2020 and 2021. As hard as it is to fathom, the best research suggests it would take a lot more money to get kids fully back on track. The achievement declines were that large.

The money is now gone, and the national conversation has moved on. But I鈥檓 struck by what I wrote a few years ago: that if policymakers don鈥檛 act to get kids back on track, they will be, 鈥渃ondemning a generation of children to worse academic and economic outcomes throughout their life.鈥�

Data from 22 states and the District of Columbia for the 2023-24 school year reveal significant differences across grade levels, with absenteeism particularly severe in high school. In most states, 12th graders have the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, often far exceeding state averages. In Mississippi, for example, the overall absenteeism rate was 24%, but among seniors, it soared to 41%. Several other states also reported senior absenteeism rates above 40%, with rates in the District of Columbia and Oregon exceeding 50%.

Equally concerning, if not more so, is the high absenteeism among ninth graders. Research consistently finds that ninth-grade success is one of the strongest predictors of high school graduation, yet many students are missing substantial amounts of school in that key transition grade. In Washington, D.C., nearly 58% of ninth graders were chronically absent in 2023-24, the highest rate of any grade. 

Many of these students missed far more than the threshold of two days per month that defines chronic absenteeism. More than 27% of D.C.鈥檚 ninth graders missed more than 30% of the school year 鈥� equivalent to 54 days of lost instruction. In California, about 23% of ninth graders were chronically absent, missing an average of 40 days, compared with just 6.8 days for their non-chronically absent peers. Notably, about three-fifths of the absences were unexcused.

Beyond high school, kindergarten often sees the highest absenteeism rates. In some states, kindergarten absenteeism surpasses high school levels. In Hawaii, for example, the overall absenteeism rate was 25%, but in kindergarten, it was nearly 34%. Kindergarten absenteeism generally spiked during the pandemic as parents sought to protect their young children during the COVID crisis. But those rates have also shown some of the most significant recovery since then. In Michigan, rates surged from 22% pre-pandemic to 45% in 2021-22 before declining to 33% in 2023-24. California followed a similar pattern, with kindergarten absenteeism rising by 25 percentage points before recovering by 16.

These grade-specific patterns underscore the need for targeted interventions. The factors driving absenteeism in kindergarten 鈥� more likely linked to parental challenges 鈥� differ from those affecting high schoolers, who may struggle with disengagement, work obligations or other external pressures. Effectively requires a nuanced approach informed by data rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. Identifying which students are missing school, and ultimately understanding why, is essential for developing targeted, impactful solutions.

Notes on the data: About half the states provide public chronic absenteeism data broken down by grade level. Most of these report data for individual grades, while others group the information into broader categories, such as elementary, middle and high school levels. FutureEd has collected grade-by-grade data for the 2023-24 school year from the 22 states and the District of Columbia, including some where data are not publicly available.

Nearly 5,000 Detroit high school students have earned at least one $200 incentive for perfect attendance since early January.

High school students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District in which they have perfect attendance, from Jan. 6 through March 21.

There have been two cycles so far for which students have received the gift cards and, in addition to the 4,936 students who had perfect attendance in at least one of two-week periods, 2,028 have had perfect attendance in both cycles, according to data Superintendent Nikolai Vitti shared with Chalkbeat this week.

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The attendance incentive is aimed at improving attendance in the district, where two-thirds of nearly 49,999 students were considered chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year. The incentive is among a number of efforts the district has employed over the years to create an attendance-going culture among students. The district has invested heavily into and this school year announced that students with extremely high rates of chronic absenteeism will be held back a grade at the K-8 level and required to repeat classes at the high school level.

The number of students earning the perfect attendance incentive is a fraction of the nearly 15,000 high school students in the district, leading one school board member to question last week whether the incentive is working. But Vitti said he is encouraged that the program is and resulting in a small decrease in the chronic absenteeism rate for high school students. He said the district and board will have to evaluate the program鈥檚 success at the end of the school year.

Chronic absenteeism has been one of the district鈥檚 biggest challenges for years. The chronic absenteeism rate has declined, from a high of nearly 80% at the height of the pandemic, when quarantining rules meant many students missed school because of COVID exposure. But last school year鈥檚 much lower chronic absenteeism rate of 66% still means it is difficult to have consistency in the classroom and improve academic achievement.

Students in Michigan are chronically absent when they miss 10%, or 18 days in a 180-day school year. Statewide, 30% of students are considered chronically absent, . A recent education scorecard cited the state鈥檚 rate as being a factor in students鈥� slow academic recovery from the pandemic.

Here are some of the highlights of the students who鈥檝e received the incentive so far::

• 3,473 students had perfect attendance during the first cycle.
• 3,492 students had perfect attendance during the second cycle.
• About 10% already had perfect attendance.
• About 4% were considered chronically absent at the time the incentive began.
• About 16% had missed 10% of the school year at the time the incentive began.
• About 25% had missed 5-10% of the school year.
• About 44% had missed 5% or fewer days in the school year.

At a Detroit school board meeting last week, Vitti said the statistic showing that just 10% of the students who earned the incentive already had perfect attendance is an indication that 鈥渢his is not just rewarding those that have already been going to school.鈥�

Board member Monique Bryant questioned what school leaders are doing to promote the incentive to students who haven鈥檛 earned it.

Bryant suggested that data Vitti shared at the meeting showing that chronic absenteeism is down by 5 percentage points for high school students since the incentive began is an illustration that most students aren鈥檛 rising to the goal of the incentive.

Vitti responded that it depends on how you look at the data.

鈥淩ight now, chronic absenteeism at the high school levels improved by five percentage points,鈥� Vitti said. 鈥淭hat means that 700 high school students are not chronically absent where they were last year. I鈥檇 also say that at least on the 97th day, our chronic absenteeism at the high school levels is the lowest it鈥檚 been since the pandemic.鈥�

The question for board members to decide at the end of the school year is whether the incentive 鈥渋s the right investment with other challenges that we have districtwide,鈥� Vitti said. 鈥淏ut I think the data is suggesting it鈥檚 working for many students 鈥� but not all.鈥�

Board member Ida Simmons Short urged the district to survey students to learn more about what is preventing them from coming to school.

The causes of chronic absenteeism are numerous and include physical and mental health reasons, lack of transportation,and lack of affordable housing. Most of them tie back to poverty. Vitti specifically , because half of the students in the district don鈥檛 attend their neighborhood school and the district doesn鈥檛 provide school bus transportation for high school students, who must take city buses to get to school.

鈥淪ometimes they鈥檙e unreliable, they鈥檙e late, they鈥檙e too far away from where the child lives,鈥� Vitti said.

Vitti said traditional school bus transportation for high school students 鈥渨as decimated鈥� under emergency management and it could cost between $50 million and $100 million to bring that level of transportation back.

Another factor, Vitti said, is that for some students, school isn鈥檛 relevant. Middle and high school students, in particular, 鈥渟truggle to understand, 鈥榳hy am I going to school every day? How is this connected to what I鈥檓 going to I need to know for life.鈥欌��

Mi鈥橩ah West, a Cass Technical High School student who serves as a student representative on the board, said that when talking to other members of the District Executive Youth Council last week, many said students overall are excited about the incentive.

One thing that stuck out, she said, was council members saying they heard students in the hallways or on social media saying they were coming to school because they want the money.

鈥淎nd, while we don鈥檛 want to just say we want to come to school for the money,鈥� West said, 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to see that students 鈥� may have stayed home because they don鈥檛 want to come to school, but they鈥檙e willing to come to school now.鈥�

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

COLUMBIA 鈥� It鈥檚 probably not surprising that students who are chronically absent from class tend to perform poorly on end-of-year tests. It鈥檚 the extent of the problem in South Carolina that seemed to stun lawmakers.

An analysis found that 1 of every 5 South Carolina students missed at least 10% of their school days during the 2022-23 school year, according to a presentation Monday to the Education Oversight Committee, an independent oversight group that evaluates K-12 achievement.

鈥淥ne out of five? That鈥檚 a lot of kids,鈥� said Rep. Terry Alexander, D-Florence, who鈥檚 among legislators on the committee. He repeated himself, drawing out one word for emphasis: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of kids.鈥�

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Among those chronically absent students, fewer than a quarter could do math as expected, and less than half could read on grade level, committee researcher Matthew Lavery found.

鈥淢y data point is a very simple one,鈥� Lavery said: 鈥淐hronic absenteeism hurts achievement 鈥� kind of a lot.鈥�

On average, fewer than half of South Carolina鈥檚 third- through eighth-grade students meet math expectations, and barely over half can read well for their grade, according to . State report cards being released Tuesday grade elementary and middle schools based on how well their students performed on those tests.

Contributing to those dismal results are students simply not being in class for much of the school year, said Lavery, the oversight agency鈥檚 deputy director.

By law, the school year must include at least 180 days of instruction. The data analyzed absences over 115 school days, leaving out the weeks at the beginning and the end, so as not to count students who moved into or out of the state partway through a semester. But it did include those who switched schools within the state, Lavery said.

A student who skips 10% or more of their school days, including half days, is considered chronically absent. For the study, that meant students missed at least 12 days鈥� worth of classes.

The numbers

More students missed out as they got older, Lavery said.

In third, fourth and fifth grades, 15% of students missed 10% of the year or more. By eighth and ninth grades, that was up to 22%. And in 12th grade, 37% of students qualified as chronically absent, according to the data Lavery presented.

That could be because older students have more freedom. Parents usually put their younger children on the bus and see them off. But high schoolers who drive or have another way of getting to school might find it easier to cut class, said Sen. Kevin Johnson, a former school board member in Clarendon County.

鈥淭hese higher grades, these students may not be going to school, and parents may not even be aware of it,鈥� the Manning Democrat said.

Nationally, more students have been absent since the years of virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2019-20 school year, 13% of students were chronically absent. In the 2021-22 school year, that spiked to 28%, and in 2022-23, it was 26% nationally, according to data presented to the committee.

That could be because of a shift in attitudes toward virtual learning as opposed to classroom instruction, committee members said.

鈥淎 lot of the time, if you鈥檙e working from home, you think your child can do the same thing,鈥� said Dana Yow, director of the oversight agency.

But the more a student misses school, the more likely they are to fail the benchmark tests the state uses to gauge achievement, according to the report.

For instance, 23% of students who missed at least 12 school days got a passing score on the end-of-year math test, compared to 47% of those who missed fewer days.

The same pattern was true for reading, with 40% of chronically absent students getting a passing grade for English language arts, compared to 60% of other students.

And 26% of chronically absent students received a passing science score, compared to 49% who were not chronically absent, according to the presentation.

Test scores worsened the more often a student was absent.

Among middle school students considered 鈥渆xtremely chronically absent,鈥� meaning they missed 20% of the school year or more, 8% met math expectations.

In high school, 12% of extremely chronically absent students could do math at grade level, according to committee data.

鈥淭his impact is big for being chronically absent at all, but it鈥檚 severe when you鈥檙e extremely chronically absent,鈥� Lavery said.

Changing schools can also affect a child鈥檚 performance.

Regardless of absences, 22% of students who switched schools partway through the year could do math and 34% could read on grade level. Among those who didn鈥檛 switch, 42% could do math as expected, and 57% could read, according to the data.

鈥淭o me, the takeaway here is go to school. Go to the same school. Stay there. Learn,鈥� Lavery said.

Why students are absent

What causes a student to be frequently absent can vary.

The committee did not have data on the reasons. But member  said she had heard from students who worked long hours at night to help pay bills, which made them too tired to come to school the next day. Other long absences are due to families going on long vacations in the middle of the semester.

鈥淲e鈥檙e battling (absences) across all socioeconomic鈥� groups, said Pender, principal at Coosa Elementary School in Beaufort County and a former teacher of the year.

In other cases, it could just be that students and parents don鈥檛 understand why their child needs to go to school, said Melanie Barton, the governor鈥檚 education adviser.

鈥淚 am fearful that this is now a cultural shift for all kids, that they just don鈥檛 see the value, and parents don鈥檛 see the value anymore,鈥� said Barton, the agency鈥檚 former director.

That鈥檚 especially true among high school juniors and seniors who may be considering going into a field that doesn鈥檛 require a high school diploma or college degree.

When Sen. Dwight Loftis worked as an insurance agent, students would sometimes shadow him and tell him they were considering dropping out because they didn鈥檛 need to finish school, the Greenville Republican said.

鈥淚鈥檝e heard some other talk from other students who begin to think about what they want to do career-wise: What is the incentive to stay in school that they don鈥檛 see?鈥� Loftis said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 get it.鈥�

What to do

By law, school officials and parents are supposed to jointly figure out how to get those students back in class.

After three consecutive absences or five total absences unapproved by administrators, state law requires school officials to develop a plan alongside the absent student and their parents. If a child continues not to show up to school, district officials can then refer them to family court, according to the state Department of Education.

Making a change could be a matter of making sure schools enforce that rule, said Rep. Neal Collins.

鈥淪tate law already contemplates this question, and it鈥檚 not enforced,鈥� the Easley Republican said. 鈥淟ocally, statewide 鈥� it鈥檚 just not enforced.鈥�

Or, state education officials and local school leaders might need to do more to hammer home just how important it is for students to go to school and what children are losing by missing classes, Lavery said.

鈥淚f the student doesn鈥檛 understand the benefit of being here, it鈥檚 definitely going to be more challenging to get them to be here,鈥� Lavery said. 鈥淎nd it might suggest that we could do a better job of narrating that, to make it clear to students what they stand to gain and, if they are not seeing the benefit, then changing our delivery or changing our approach so they can find that benefit.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on and .

Bronx Principal David Liu did not notice an abrupt change in attendance when students returned to in-person learning three years ago after pandemic campus closures. Instead, the problem became clearer to him as the year progressed.

Students and staff at Gotham Collaborative High School became fatigued by five-day school weeks. Child tax credits and supplemental unemployment benefits also , forcing parents back into the workplace and requiring students to take on more responsibilities at home.

鈥淭he grind of what school was started to hit students at different times of the school year,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when chronic absenteeism became kind of more like this slowly growing thing in our school.鈥�

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Now, the school has begun to crack the code on chronic absenteeism, a problem challenging school districts . Administrators implemented a data system to better track students鈥� attendance and leverage staff and community organizations to counsel those at risk of chronic absence. The school even offers incentives to get students to show up, such as early-morning breakfast raffles or day trips.

Schools across New York City have introduced new initiatives to address the longstanding issue. Some have started to use restorative justice as a guiding principle in group interventions that target chronically absent students, rather than resorting to more punitive measures. Increasingly, schools are enlisting other students to encourage their friends to attend school regularly.

Most districts, including New York City, consider a student chronically absent if they miss at least 10% of the school year, whether those days are considered excused, unexcused, or part of a suspension. With a 180-day academic calendar, that is 18 missed days of school.

The citywide chronic absenteeism rate stood at about 25% before the pandemic. Once students returned to in-person learning in 2021, the city鈥檚 share of chronically absent students jumped 15 percentage points. While schools have made progress to lower that rate over the years, citywide chronic absenteeism still hasn鈥檛 returned to what it once was. Nearly 35% of public school students were chronically absent last school year, according to data recently released in the .

Though higher-poverty schools began closing the gap on chronic absenteeism in 2022-23, that gap still hovered about 14 percentage points higher than their counterparts. As a result, more and more schools have found themselves addressing issues that exist beyond the school鈥檚 environment, such as students鈥� access to health care, child care, and .

That is why some teachers and school administrators say tackling chronic absenteeism is so challenging 鈥� it often requires a deeper knowledge of the students and families that they serve. In its 2022-23 , Gotham Collaborative cited 鈥渘ot knowing our students well鈥� as the root cause of the school鈥檚 chronic absence problem.

And while data collection often serves as a first step to addressing chronic absenteeism, creating plans that lead to improvement requires people, said Kim Nauer, an education fellow at The New School鈥檚 Center for New York City Affairs who has looked at .

鈥淓very single one of those numbers needs to be a kid and a name and a parent and a person attached to them,鈥� she said. 鈥淥therwise you鈥檙e not going to make progress in any sustained way. Like robocalls [are] useless.鈥�

Using data to target specific student groups

Gotham Collaborative High School, which served a little over 300 students last school year, had already viewed chronic absenteeism as an issue worthy of intervention before the pandemic. The school鈥檚 pre-pandemic chronic absenteeism rate was already higher than the average, at about 56%, and it then grew to 61% in 2020 when the pandemic forced school closures across the city.

During the 2022-23 school year, however, the high school鈥檚 rate of chronically absent students dropped to roughly 29%, its lowest in years.

Tackling the issue has taken years of targeted work and has relied on a data system the school created, grouping students into four buckets according to their absences. Each group receives certain interventions depending on the severity of their record. Those are provided through several support teams that might include peer mediator ambassadors, school counselors, and a social worker.

Sometimes intervention looks like an in-depth, individualized assessment of a student and their needs, or a home visit with a student and their family. But other times it may look like a school social for students who feel that they don鈥檛 have a strong network of friends, or an early-morning breakfast raffle.

Addressing the needs of students whose attendance and academic performance didn鈥檛 raise warning flags was critical, Liu said. Before introducing the new system, he said, the school identified only a small selection of students 鈥� those who came in the least, or about half of the school year, and those who had near-perfect attendance. Changing their focus helped shift the school toward lower instances of chronic absence, he believes.

鈥淭his was a main 鈥榓ha鈥� moment for us,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese are our students that are coming 80% of the time, four out of five times a week, they might be B-average students. It sparked a lot of conversations about how do we show them that what they鈥檙e doing is not meeting what they can be doing and their potential?鈥�

Many schools with a high share of chronically absent students use some variation of Gotham Collaborative鈥檚 data tracking system.

New York City schools receive weekly automatic that list students who have missed five or 10 school days. Schools can also print additional reports that show all students who have missed school five or 10 times, or chronically absent students from the previous school year. The reports are most effective when schools create workflows to immediately address what they are seeing in the data, said a spokesperson for the education department.

Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, a national and state initiative to address the issue, also noted that early intervention is important. When she and other researchers began using the current, widely adopted 10% rule, she said one of its main purposes was to serve as an early-warning metric. So if a student misses two days of school in a month, she said, that should alert teachers and staff that a student is in need of support.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want you to wait til 17 days to notice that things are a challenge,鈥� Chang said, in reference to annual absences. 鈥淥r even in the first month, if it鈥檚 10 days, that鈥檚 a problem.鈥�

Using peer-to-peer support to overcome chronic absenteeism

Researchers like Chang and Nauer often examine chronic absenteeism among younger students because it is more representative of families鈥� circumstances. A 5-year-old, for example, isn鈥檛 missing school on their own accord, Chang said.

But for teens, chronic absenteeism comes with its own set of complexities. Liu has noticed that some of his students may miss school due to working long hours or having to bring younger siblings to and from school. Some may choose not to show up to avoid conflict with friends, he said.

And because the conversations that staffers have with students inevitably look different than those that students might have with people closer to their age, Liu is now focusing on tapping students鈥� ability to deeply connect with their peers to curb chronic absence.

鈥淓very year we get older, but the kids stay the same age,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o every year the staff gets one year removed from being generationally, culturally relevant.鈥�

At The International High School for Health Sciences 鈥� where all students are newly arrived immigrants 鈥� students may also grapple with other hurdles that affect engagement, such as learning English for the first time, or preparing for standardized tests unfamiliar to them, according to administrators at the school. Yet the high school鈥檚 chronic absenteeism rate during the 2022-23 school year fell to 29.5%, nearly cutting its rates from the previous two years in half.

In 2018, the school began using restorative justice 鈥� a practice that the school has used in lieu of other disciplinary measures since it opened over 10 years ago 鈥� to address chronic absenteeism, administrators say. A chronically absent student 鈥� typically in their final year of high school 鈥� sits down with a group of their closest friends, a teacher that they have a strong relationship with, and the assistant principal. The group discusses the student鈥檚 strengths, reasons for why they don鈥檛 show up at school, and how others in the group can support them moving forward.

International High School also receives extra support from staff at Queens Community House, the school鈥檚 community-based partner. Now in its third year, the partnership is funded through NYC Community Schools, a grant-based program that extends to of the city鈥檚 more than 1,500 schools.

Queens Community House provides services such as tutoring outside of regular school hours 鈥� particularly during Regents season 鈥� and events that range from self-care workshops to game nights. Communicating with families, however, is one of its primary functions, said the school鈥檚 Community Schools Director Lizbeth Mendoza.

鈥淭he framework for a lot of these conversations is building relationships,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I鈥檓 actually the person that sends out the message letting a parent or guardian know that their student was absent at the end of the day.鈥�

At the High School for Teaching and the Professions in the Bronx, groups of older mentors and younger mentees start pairing together in October. The mentors, typically 11th or 12th graders, receive training in their own classes on how to support their mentees, whether that be through engaging in activities together or talking through the mentees鈥� experiences.

鈥淭hey go in and they really create this bond,鈥� said Principal Roberto Hernandez. 鈥淎nd what I found within the last two years was a sense of ownership that our mentors are having for their mentees.鈥�

This sense of commitment has trickled into other areas of focus for the school, like attendance, Hernandez said. For some students, it has also created a sense of commitment to the school at large: Two of the high school鈥檚 guidance counselors are former students. Now that the school has a designated guidance counselor for every grade level, Hernandez said it is easier for the administration to connect with individual students.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just teaching, it鈥檚 getting to know them and letting them get to know you, and they love it,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I think that鈥檚 all contributing to where we are today.鈥�

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at . 

Nearly 1 in 3 K-12 students in Michigan missed 10% or more school days this past academic year, a tiny decrease from last year but still considerably higher than before the pandemic.

The troublesome trend comes as state test scores show . Educators blame a host of factors, from poverty and health to transportation and accessibility of online course materials.

鈥淚t鈥檚 disappointing that we didn鈥檛 see the progress for this past school year that we saw the year before,鈥� said Jeremy Singer, an assistant research professor at Wayne State University who studies student attendance.

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鈥淲e know the fundamental reasons that kids miss school, so the question obviously is: What is the extra thing since the pandemic?鈥�

Michigan defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% or more of school days, or 18 days or more during a 180-day school year.

During the 2023-2024 school year, 29.5% of students were chronically absent,

That鈥檚 still significantly higher than during the last pre-pandemic school year, when 19.7% of K-12 students were chronically absent.

Poverty is a big factor, affecting parents鈥� ability to navigate illness, work, and get children to school. Districts with the greatest percentage of economically disadvantaged students have the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, and those with the fewest poor students have the lowest rates.

But almost every district in Michigan, wealthy or poor, urban, suburban or rural, absentee rates rose during the pandemic.

Chronic absenteeism rates vary among districts:

• Detroit Public Schools Community District: 65.8% during the 2023-2024 school year, up from 62.1% pre-pandemic.
• Grand Rapids Public Schools: 41.2%, up from 27.3%.
• Ann Arbor Public Schools: 38.1%, up from 13.3%.
• Bloomfield Hills Schools: 17.7%, up from 9.5%.
• Portage Public Schools: 16.5%, up from 10.2%.

Bridge鈥檚 analysis shows 40.1% of economically disadvantaged students are chronically absent compared to 16.1% of non-economically disadvantaged students.

Proficiency scores track both poverty and absenteeism, the data shows: For the 50 districts with the highest overall proficiency rates (over 60%) in English language arts for grades 3-8, an average of 16% students were chronically absent. They were also among the wealthiest districts 鈥� Northville, Birmingham, Forest Hills, and East Grand Rapids.

Overall, the 50 lowest-scoring districts, including Pontiac, Flint, and Muskegon, had some of the highest absenteeism rates, with an average of 54.7%. And fewer than 12% of students in those districts in grades 3-8 were proficient in English language arts.

鈥淥ur students need to attend school regularly to maximize their school experiences,鈥� said state Superintendent Michael Rice. 鈥淒espite our progress, far too many students are chronically absent. We need to work together to redouble our efforts and remove barriers to school attendance.鈥�

Absenteeism is a national problem.

A Detroit News and Associated Press analysis of 2022-2023 data found that .

Chalkbeat reports in five years.

Using federal COVID-19 relief funds, schools have invested in tutoring and other efforts to help students make up lost academic ground.

Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, a research center that explores education finance to inform policy, that investments don鈥檛 work if students aren鈥檛 in school to use the supports.

Generally, 鈥渁ttendance matters for achievement,鈥� Singer said.

鈥淲hat is the relationship between attendance and achievement post pandemic? Is missing school worse for students? Is missing school not as consequential as it used to be?鈥�

In Northview Public Schools in Grand Rapids, about a quarter of students were chronically absent last school year. That鈥檚 down from 41.1% students the previous year but still higher than 13.3% pre-pandemic.

Angela Jefferson, deputy superintendent, said it is the district鈥檚 role to ensure there鈥檚 a culture of belonging, so students want to attend school.

She told Bridge students are able to stay up to date with coursework when they are absent more easily than before the pandemic because of programs like Canvas.

鈥淚 think prior to the pandemic, if you missed school, you missed a lot of instruction, and certainly students in the classroom is a great priority,鈥� Jefferson said.

But with programs where students can see their coursework online, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a blessing and a curse because students could miss school and still stay very well academically connected.鈥�

Jefferson and others acknowledge that factors outside of a school鈥檚 control also factor in student attendance.

At Westwood Community School District in Dearborn Heights, Superintendent Stiles Simmons said his district has experienced an uptick in student homelessness and people are 鈥渂ecoming increasingly transient.鈥�

The district is working with Concentric Educational Solutions, which sends people to visit student homes and aims to discuss with students鈥� families about what鈥檚 stopping students from regularly attending class.

Simmons said the district tries to be responsive to what they hear from families about barriers to attendance.

If a student is missing transportation, the school can set up temporary transportation. If a student needs clean clothes, the family may be able to use the school laundry machines. If the student needs food, the family can stock up on food from the school pantries.

Detroit Public Schools Community District plans to add laundry facilities to every school in an effort to combat absenteeism, .

Both Simmons and Jefferson say school choice policy may also be playing a role in attendance numbers.

Students who are not zoned for a particular school district may attend a different district but rely on their parents to get to school. If a parent loses reliable transportation or there鈥檚 bad weather, that can affect a student鈥檚 attendance for several days

Statewide, 1 in 4 students now attend a charter school or a district other than the one in which they live, a .

This was originally published by . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at . 

Indiana鈥檚 top education officials applauded the state鈥檚 on Wednesday but conceded that too many Hoosier students are still missing a 鈥渟ignificant鈥�  number of school days.

The latest attendance released by the Indiana Department of Education reported that 17.8% of K-12 students 鈥� roughly 219,00 kids 鈥� were 鈥渃hronically absent鈥� during the most recent 2023-24 school year, meaning they missed at least 18 days.

It鈥檚 the second year in a row that the number of chronically absent students went down, dropping from 19.2% in 2023, and 21.1% in 2022.

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鈥淚t鈥檚 an improvement 鈥� and we always want to celebrate improvements and data moving in the right direction鈥� but we still have some work to do,鈥� said John Keller, IDOE鈥檚 chief information officer, during Wednesday鈥檚 State Board of Education meeting.

Keller maintained that the reasons for absences vary, but 鈥渢he interpretation of the 鈥榳hy鈥� is really going to have to be a locally determined thing.鈥�

鈥淥ur general focus has been making sure that there are no insights in the data that remain unturned. But what we鈥檙e doing is holding up the mirror on this attendance data and allowing schools to slice it any way they can possibly think of,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淚鈥檓 guessing there are probably different approaches that we use to address the most chronic of the chronic absenteeism, versus things that are maybe a little bit more episodic and not as much of a long-term pattern. But that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to look at with broader analysis.鈥�

Educators around the state have pointed to family challenges some students face at home, along with hard-to-break tendencies to keep kids home when even mildly unwell 鈥� a habit borne out of the pandemic 鈥� as key factors.

to try to combat the growing problem, like increasing communication with parents and incentivizing absence-prone students to come to class.

IDOE officials are also working on responses to improve school attendance, including development of a new 鈥淎ttendance Insights鈥� dashboard that breaks down weekly habitually truant and chronic absenteeism rates at the local and school levels. The state has already made the tool available to Hoosier school officials and plans to launch a public version later this month.

鈥淚t is statistically significant 鈥� students who are coming to school 94% of the time are doing better, significantly,鈥� said Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner. 鈥淎s a parent or a grandparent or whatever, that 94% or more really, really matters. Teachers could have told us this before we ran the data, right? But running the data, it is very clear students need to be in the classroom in order to make the greatest performance.鈥�

A deeper look at the data

Student absences have been on the rise since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indiana and across the nation. Chronic absenteeism surged during the pandemic, nearly doubling to peak at 21.1% in 2022, according to IDOE.

Keller said the latest data suggests Indiana has 鈥渢urned the corner鈥� and appears to be reversing from its high-absence period during the pandemic. He emphasized that all grades levels improved their chronic absenteeism rates in 2023-24 by one to two percent when compared to the year prior.

鈥淭hese are not insignificant improvements,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淏ut obviously, we have not returned to the pre-pandemic attendance.鈥�

According to the 2023-24 data, 23.7% of students who receive free or reduced lunch were chronically absent 鈥� nearly 11% higher than their peers. English language learners were also slightly more likely to miss class; 18.5% of English learners were chronically absent during the last school year, compared to 17.7% of non-English language learners.

The Indiana Code as being absent 18 or more days within a school year for any reason 鈥� a higher standard than 鈥渉abitual truancy,鈥� which is ten or more days without an excuse.

Under the 鈥渃ompulsory education鈥� laws in Indiana, children must regularly attend school from the time they鈥檙e seven years old until they turn 18, with some exceptions.

But unless they鈥檙e excused, students who cut class too often could end up under a juvenile court鈥檚 supervision. Built-up absences could also prompt prosecutors to file misdemeanor charges against Hoosier parents, given that they are legally responsible for making sure their children go to school.

Keller took notice of 鈥渃onsistent, dramatic differences鈥� in academic performance for students who are chronically absent versus those with better attendance.

鈥淭he data pretty much speaks for themselves. There are stark differences between the populations on all these measures,鈥� he said, referring to 鈥渘oticeably鈥� lower scores on IREAD, ILEARN and the SAT among chronically absent students.

鈥淣o matter the quality of the interventions, it doesn鈥檛 matter so much if (students) are not in the room,鈥� Keller continued.

IDOE officials further noted that students who are chronically absent are significantly less likely to read by third grade, master key ELA and math skills, or be college-ready.

鈥淭he magnitude of that is startling,鈥� Jenner said. 鈥淲e look at the high schools, which is certainly the most significant, but if you look at kindergarten and first grade 鈥� that is a lot higher than it should be. That鈥檚 when our teachers are working on the foundations with kids. So, we鈥檝e got to make sure that habit is early, that kids are getting to school.鈥�

New tools going live

At IDOE, Keller said state officials have 鈥渟hifted鈥� their focus from 鈥渏ust a school-focused look at attendance鈥� to honing in on individual students.

鈥淭he old way of looking at attendance was adding up all the days kids could have attended school, looking at all the days they did attend, and then creating a rate out of that number,鈥� Keller explained. 鈥淣ow we鈥檙e looking at the student level and saying, 鈥楩or this kid, did they attend 94% of the time they could have attended?鈥欌��

Other ongoing analyses at the state level are digging into patterns of chronic absenteeism.

鈥淎re the students who are chronically absent in any grade this year, were they the prior and the prior and the prior and the prior years?鈥� Keller questioned.

Data shows that in 2023-24, about half of the chronically absent students had been chronically absent in one of the last prior three years. 鈥淎nd half of them were new to the roster, if you will,鈥� Keller said.

The new 鈥淎ttendance Insights鈥� dashboard 鈥� meant to help state and local officials investigate data trends 鈥� went live for school officials Aug. 23. A public version will be available later this month or early in October. 

The dashboard shows several years worth of week-by-week attendance data 鈥� including excused and unexcused absences, as well as rates of chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy 鈥� for individual schools. Because schools already report their attendance numbers to IDOE, Keller said the dashboard will show the most up-to-date data.

Filters additionally allow users to break data down by students鈥� race, ethnicity and socioeconomic and English learner statuses.

鈥淲e want to set the table for schools to do that analysis, identify trends and patterns, areas where data collection can be improved,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淲e want to work with a variety of stakeholders to identify root causes.鈥�

Board member Pat Mapes said the dashboard can help school and district administrators show parents 鈥渢hat difference between academic achievement and whether or not you鈥檙e at school.鈥�

鈥淏ecause it doesn鈥檛 matter how much the school sends letters, makes phone calls 鈥� parents have to understand that your kids in our buildings is how they can progress academically and build the skills they need to be successful,鈥� Mapes said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e really never had anything like this to be able to pull data out to really make that story.鈥�

Also in the works is an 鈥渆arly warning system鈥� that studies more than a decade of data patterns among students who graduated high school 鈥� and those who did not graduate 鈥� to identify possible behaviors of concern and risk factors for becoming chronically absent.

Currently, the 11 Hoosier school corporations are participating in a two-month pilot.

鈥淲e want to get it out as soon as possible. We want to stop the trial, take away the placebo, and give everybody access,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e not going to do it until we鈥檙e confident.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on and .

Knocking on the doors where kids had repeatedly missed school, the workers told parents of assistance the district could offer with transportation, school supplies, and even clothing. 

The effort, a standard strategy for LAUSD at this point, was designed and implemented by the district after the pandemic, when the number of students deemed chronically absent reached nearly half of total enrollment.  

Since then, the number of kids missing class has fallen, but it鈥檚 still nearly one-third of all students, so LA Unified has continued its push, said superintendent Alberto Carvalho. 

鈥淭he first priority is having kids at school,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need kids in school.鈥� 

Both for academic and financial reasons, as it turns out. 

Rates of chronic absenteeism – defined by the district as missing ten percent or more of a school year – exploded in the pandemic, with nearly half of students missing that much class.   

Prior to the pandemic, the fire had already started. In the two years before Covid,  percent of students deemed chronically absent jumped from 13% to more than 18%. When school returned after shutdowns it rose to nearly half of all students.

The situation in LA wasn’t unique. But it threatened both academic and financial standing of the district, as well as endangering the lives of children who missed school. And causes for the persistent problem are complex, said Victor Flores, principal of John H. Liechty Middle School in Westlake.  

鈥淪ometimes it’s the parents that are working long hours, double jobs, and so it’s hard to get them to and from school,鈥� said Flores. 鈥淪ometimes it’s chronic illnesses that some students may have. There may be mental illness or other issues in the family.鈥� 

Even though daily attendance in LAUSD is rising, rates of chronic absenteeism stood at nearly one-third of students at the end of the last academic year, nearly double pre-pandemic levels. Officials in Los Angeles, around the state and even don鈥檛 see a full recovery any time soon. 

Here鈥檚 what鈥檚 to know about the sticky issue and how it affects LA Unified: 

1. No easy fixes for a long-term problem impacting LA鈥檚 most vulnerable students 

In L.A. Unified, just over 45% of students were chronically absent in 2021-22. The percentage dropped to 36.5% in 2022-23. The preliminary rate for the 2023-24 school shows improvement to 32.3%, but that鈥檚 still way above historic norms 鈥� and Carvalho said yearly, incremental gains will be how the district digs itself out.  

鈥淪ome of the challenges faced by these families transcend that which the school system can address,鈥� said Carvalho.  

The students impacted by the problem are the city鈥檚 neediest, said Graciela Ortiz, field coordinator for pupil services and attendance. Data kept by the district show homeless kids, poor kids and students with disabilities are far more likely to be absent. Likewise for kindergartners and pre-kindergarteners entering the system, and high school kids.

鈥淚t鈥檚 our working-class families and low-income communities that are affected the most by attendance issues,鈥� said Ortiz. 鈥淎fter the pandemic, it’s as if those barriers [that prevent kids from getting to class] were just exacerbated.鈥�  

2. Showing up for class makes nine times the difference when it comes to LAUSD  academics 

Research has long shown chronic absenteeism is bad for academics. And showing up for class is good. But LAUSD has now quantified just how important this is, Carhvalho said at a press conference given at Venice High School on the first day of class. 

鈥淔or every one percent of daily attendance improvement, particularly for the most fragile students, we see a nine percent improvement in academic performance,鈥� Carvalho said. The calculations were made with principals from 100 schools that are fighting the problem, he said.  

3. Chronic absenteeism creates a financial problem in LA Unified, too  

Unlike many other large states that look more aggressively at enrollment, California uses attendance as a weighty measure to make decisions about school funding, said Carvalho. For every 1% of improved attendance in the district, that’s an additional $60 million in state funding it would receive, he said. So students who don鈥檛 go to class regularly 鈥渁ctually deflate the total potential revenue for all students in the district,鈥� he said. 

Like other districts, Los Angeles is under and is trying to avoid closing schools amid enrollment declines. Given those circumstances, Carvalho said, the money is more important than ever, even if the district managed to avoid layoffs this year.  

4. LA Unified鈥檚 novel toolbox to fight absenteeism includes 鈥渃oncierge鈥� bussing for kids who miss class

The complex causes of chronic absenteeism demand a complex response. So LAUSD is using an array of tools at the problem, including 鈥渃oncierge鈥� transportation that鈥檚 鈥渁lmost door-to-door,鈥� Carvalho said. Transportation is one of the most challenging obstacles in getting kids to class, so the district is rerouting its bus lines to pick up students as close to their homes as possible. 鈥淲e鈥檙e constantly rerouting,鈥� said the superintendent.

Customized bus routes are just part of the package. The district is continuing with home visits, attendance counselors at each school, and provides wraparound social services meant to boost attendance, such counseling, medical care, or even laundry. Other novel approaches include trying to make school fun, for example, and principals taking the time to talk to parents individually at pickup and dropoff.     

鈥淪tudent disconnection鈥� spurred on by mental health factors, disproportionate discipline and a lack of in-school supports plays its part in driving Ohio鈥檚 absenteeism rate, according to a new report from an Ohio think tank.

That absenteeism, and the contributing factors of it, can create 鈥渁n entry point in the school-to-prison pipeline,鈥� according to Policy Matters Ohio, who released a new study on the issue this month.

鈥淢ental health factors such as depression, anxiety and chronic stress reduce kids鈥� desire to attend school,鈥� Policy Matters stated. 鈥淭rauma and violence exacerbate those issues, increasing the likelihood that a student will become chronically absent, defined in Ohio as missing 10% of the school year for any reason, excused or unexcused.鈥�

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Chronic absenteeism feeds a 鈥渘egative cycle鈥� that can lead to the juvenile justice system, which disproportionately impacts Black students and economically disadvantaged families, according to the study.

In the analysis of state data, Policy Matters found that students who have been 鈥渁djudicated, or found guilty, in the juvenile court system鈥� graduated at a rate of just 23.2% in 2022.

鈥淵oung people who encounter the juvenile justice system face challenges that follow them throughout their lives,鈥� wrote researcher Tanisha Pruitt, Ph.D. 鈥淭hey have more difficulty accessing education, economic security, health care and other opportunities to live healthier and happier lives.鈥�

Those disproportionate numbers of students of color and low-income students are fed by the connections between attendance, economic security and school resources, the study found.

鈥淭hese are the unsurprising consequences of locking communities out of broad public investments through segregation, red-lining and the legacy of chronic inequitable school funding,鈥� Pruitt wrote.

Also feeding the absenteeism rate, its implications for engagement with the juvenile justice system and lowered student outcomes, is 鈥渆xclusionary discipline,鈥� including expulsion and suspension. Those types of discipline are 鈥渙ften counterproductive, leaving excluded students further behind their peers and more likely to leave school altogether,鈥� according to the report.

Using data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Policy Matters found that out-of-school suspensions made up more than 53% of 394,582 cases of exclusionary discipline used between 2022 and 2023. In-school suspensions made up 29%. Expulsion was used in 1.13% of cases.

The study cited a discipline analysis done by Children鈥檚 Defense Fund of Ohio from 2022 to 2023, which found 鈥渟ignificant racial disparities鈥� in exclusionary discipline, with Black female students found to be six times more likely than white female students to be suspended or expelled, and Black male students found to be 4.3 times more likely than their white counterparts in the state.

鈥淒espite the increased scrutiny, potential consequences and state-level policy reforms, exclusionary discipline is still too common and disproportionately distributed,鈥� Pruitt wrote in the report.

Pruitt brought up 2018鈥檚 鈥淪upporting Alternatives for Fair Education Act,鈥� a bill that sought to change school discipline practices by prohibiting expulsions and suspensions, but only for pre-K through third grade students. An exception was allowed in the act that allowed those types of discipline in those grade levels if conduct threatened the safety of school personnel or students.

But for any student older than third grade, there were more options in terms of discipline, including emergency removal and in-school 鈥渁lternate discipline.鈥�

Pruitt praised the law for requiring Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS), a method she said is part of 鈥渞estorative justice approaches,鈥� which 鈥渁re more effective than exclusion at supporting student achievement鈥� and could be expanded in Ohio.

鈥淭he PBIS model, if expanded and accompanied by funding to hire staff, implement programming and establish needed health services at school, would be a sure step in securing more kids鈥� futures and closing the school-to-prison pipeline,鈥� Pruitt wrote.

Other recommendations included in the report focused on improving employment practices for parents to create manageable work schedules and create more connection with their children, urging more refundable tax credits to help economically disadvantaged families, along with pushing an increase in staff and student support funding (including full funding of the Fair School Funding Plan for public schools).

鈥淭o meet (student) needs, schools need funding,鈥� the study stated. 鈥淜ids need more school counselors and nurses, more mental and behavioral health services and a more holistic approach to education.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on and .

Virginia students鈥� reading and math assessments for the 2023-24 school year saw some improvement over last year after months of recovery efforts, according to data released by the Department of Education Tuesday. However, pass rates in other subjects are still behind results from the 2022-23 school year.

Pass rates for grades 3 through 8 in reading, math, and science Standards of Learning tests all showed increases statewide by at least 1%. Writing showed the highest increase 鈥� 17 percentage points 鈥� while history and social science saw little gain, less than a percentage point.

The Standards of Learning tests (SOLs) are used in Virginia to measure student learning and achievement in mathematics, reading, science, writing, and history and social science. Testing was suspended during 2020-21, when many schools around the state stopped in-person instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In 2023-24, roughly 71% of Virginia students passed the math tests compared to 82% before the pandemic. On reading tests, 77.5% of students overall passed compared to 73% before the pandemic.

The administration has regularly the results of the learning loss on prior Boards of Education that changed the state鈥檚 standards of school accreditation and required to be considered proficient in a certain subject, on student assessments. Democrats and previous board members have defended such decisions.

鈥淓very single one of our data releases is a snapshot into a motion picture, and I鈥檓 pleased today that the motion picture will, in fact, show that a ship that was off course has been turned around, and that we are seeing progress,鈥� said Gov. Glenn Youngkin, 鈥渂ut we will also say today that we have a long way to go.鈥�

Last September, the administration, troubled by the significant learning loss in reading and math, dedicated $418 million through the 2025-26 school year to the problem. The administration launched 鈥渉igh-intensity鈥� tutoring programs and the 鈥淎LL IN VA鈥� plan to focus on attendance, literacy and tutoring.

Statewide, schools hired additional tutors, extended instruction time before and after school, and focused on using the state鈥檚 free personalized supplemental math and reading resources.

The data showed a 16% reduction in students chronically absent in 2023-24 compared to the previous year. Students are chronically absent if they have missed at least 18 days of instruction for any reason, including excused and unexcused absences.

Data shows pass rates statewide increased for economically disadvantaged students, English learners and students with disabilities over the previous two school years.

Mixed results between counties

However, school divisions have had mixed results with pass rates.

Fairfax County, the largest school division in Virginia, maintained similar pass rates in reading, math and science over the previous two school years, but experienced significant drops in writing, and history and social science by at least 20 percentage points each.

Craig County, one of the smaller school divisions in the commonwealth, saw increases in all five subject areas.

The administration also praised school divisions such as Bath and Brunswick County Public Schools.

Between 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, Bath saw a 19% increase in reading scores and Brunswick saw a 21% increase in grades 3-8 math pass rates.

With schools facing the threat of All In VA funding ending in two years, Kristy Somerville-Midgette, superintendent of Brunswick County Public Schools, recommended superintendents work with their school boards, and local government and 鈥渂e creative鈥� with their funding and 鈥渓ook for opportunities to best serve students.鈥�

Levi Goren, a policy director at The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, said in a statement that the increases in pass rates are 鈥済reat鈥� and the success is likely connected to the recent increases in state support for students. Support for students facing 鈥渉igher barriers,鈥� such as students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and English language learners, is still needed, Goren added.

鈥淲hile today鈥檚 scores were promising for some of these students, we know that one strong year of improvement cannot make up for the continued impact of years of insufficient funding,鈥� Goren said. 鈥淪ustained increases in state funding would help lift test scores and other outcomes for students facing greater barriers.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

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Angela Girol has been teaching fourth grade in Pittsburgh for over two decades. Over the years she鈥檚 noticed a change at her school: It’s getting hotter.

Some days temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit in her classroom which, , isn鈥檛 air-conditioned. When it’s hot, she said, kids don鈥檛 eat, or drink enough water. 鈥淭hey end up in the nurse’s office because they’re dizzy, they have a headache, their stomach hurts 鈥� all because of heat and dehydration,鈥� she said.

To cope with the heat, her students are now allowed to keep water on their desks, but that presents its own challenges. 鈥淭hey’re constantly filling up water bottles, so I have to give them breaks during the day for that. And then everyone has to go to the bathroom all the time,鈥� she said. 鈥淚’m losing instruction time.鈥�

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The effect extreme heat is having on schools and child care is starting to get the attention of policymakers and researchers. Last week, the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, on the issue. In April, so did the , a nonprofit policy organization.

鈥淭he average school building in the U.S. was built nearly 50 years ago,鈥� said policy analyst Allie Schneider, co-author of the Center for American Progress report. 鈥淪chools and child care centers were built in areas that maybe 30 or 15 years ago didn’t require access to air-conditioning, or at least for a good portion of the year. Now we’re seeing that becoming a more pressing concern.鈥� Students are also on campus during the hottest parts of the day. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something that is really important not just to their physical health, but their learning outcomes,鈥� she said.

Last April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its own detailing some of the effects heat has on kids. It notes that children have a harder time thermo-regulating and take longer to produce sweat, making them more vulnerable than adults to heat exhaustion and heat illness.

Kids don鈥檛 necessarily listen to their body鈥檚 cues about heat, and might need an adult to remind them to drink water or not play outside. Kevin Toolan, a sixth-grade teacher in Long Island, New York, said having to constantly monitor heat safety distracts him from being able to teach. 鈥淭he mindset is shifting to safety rather than instruction,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hose children don鈥檛 know how to handle it.鈥�

To keep the classroom cool, he鈥檒l turn the lights off, but kids fall asleep. 鈥淭hey are lethargic,鈥� he said.

To protect kids, because temperatures have gotten too high. Warmer temperatures also lead to more , especially low-income students. And heat makes it harder to learn. tracked the scores of students from schools without air-conditioning who took the PSAT exam at least twice. It found that increases in the average outdoor temperature corresponded with students making smaller gains on their retakes.

Both Toolan and Girol said that cooling options like keeping doors and windows open to promote cross ventilation are gone, thanks to the clampdowns in school security after 9/11 鈥� and worsened by the threat of school shootings. Students and teachers are trapped in their overheating classrooms. 鈥淭eachers report leaving with migraines or signs of heat exhaustion,鈥� said Toolan. 鈥淎t 100 degrees, it is very uncomfortable. Your clothes are stuck to you.鈥�

The Center for American Progress report joins a call by other advocacy groups to create federal guidance that schools and child care centers could adopt 鈥渢o ensure that children are not forced to learn, play and exercise in dangerously hot conditions,鈥� Schneider said. Some states already have standards in place, but they vary. In California, child care facilities are required to keep temperatures between 68 and 85 degrees. In Maryland, the recommendation is between 74 and 82 degrees. A few states, like Florida, require schools to reduce outdoor activity on high-heat days. Schneider says federal guidance would help all school districts use the latest scientific evidence to set protective standards.

In June, 23 health and education advocacy organizations signed making a similar request of the Department of Education, asking for better guidance and coordination to protect kids. Some of their recommendations included publishing a plan that schools could adopt for dealing with high temperatures; encouraging states to direct more resources to providing air-conditioning in schools; and providing school districts with information on heat hazards.

鈥淲e know that school infrastructure is being overwhelmed by extreme heat, and that without a better system to advise schools on the types of practices they should be implementing, it’s going to be a little bit of the Wild West of actions being taken,鈥� said Grace Wickerson, health equity policy manager at the Federation of American Scientists.

A longer term solution is upgrading school infrastructure but the need for air conditioning is overwhelming. According to the Center for American Progress report, 36,000 schools nationwide don鈥檛 have adequate HVAC systems. By 2025, it estimates that installing or upgrading HVAC or other cooling systems will cost around $4.4 billion.

Some state or local governments are trying to address the heat issue. In June, the New York State Legislature now awaiting the governor鈥檚 signature that would require school staff to take measures like closing blinds or turning off lights when temperatures reach 82 degrees inside a classroom. At 88 degrees, classes would be canceled. A last year and currently before California鈥檚 state assembly would require schools to create extreme heat action plans that could include mandating hydration and rest breaks or moving recess to cooler parts of the day.

Some teachers have been galvanized to take action, too. As president of the Patchogue-Medford Congress of Teachers, Toolan was part of an effort to secure $80 million for infrastructure upgrades through a bond vote. Over half will go to HVAC systems for some 500 classrooms in his district.

And Girol is running for a state representative seat in Pennsylvania, where a main plank in her platform is to fully fund public schools in order to pay for things like air-conditioning. She was recently endorsed by the Climate Cabinet, a federal political action committee. 鈥淧art of the reason climate is so important to me is because of this issue,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 see how it’s negatively affecting my students.鈥�

Originally published by

The researchers found that in 2016 there was no discernable difference between the chronic absenteeism rates of English learners and non-English learners. But around 2021, there was a marked shift: suddenly English learners were absent more frequently than their peers, both in the raw data and when controlling for other variables like socioeconomic status.

This trend was particularly acute for older students and those who had been classified as English learners for six or more years. 

The magnitude of this shift is small but 鈥渢roubling,鈥� according to the study, especially because previous research has shown a disproportionate effect of absences on English learners鈥� achievement in and . 

And these results seem to match statewide trends: the most recent data from California (2022鈥�2023) show that the chronic absenteeism rate among English learners was close to , four percentage points above the rate for non-English learners. 

Across the nation, chronic absenteeism 鈥� students missing more than 10% of school days a year 鈥� surged during the pandemic, from 13% in 2017 to 28% in 2022, and remained high in 2023. While most acute among students of color and those in poorer districts, the spike cut across districts regardless of size, racial breakdown or income.

鈥淚 think our findings really highlight this as an issue that should be looked at with a sense of urgency,鈥� lead researcher Lucrecia Santiba帽ez told 社区黑料. She noted that missing a significant amount of classroom time has a negative impact on both test scores and social emotional learning, effects that can compound over time. 鈥淐learly this population has struggled to recover to where they were before. So if we were already worried about them before the pandemic 鈥� these higher absenteeism rates are probably going to make that worse.鈥�

Santiba帽ez, who is Mexican and a mother of three, said her personal experiences helped spur her interest in studying Latino populations in schools. During the COVID recovery period, she began hearing from English language development teachers who were struggling to engage their students and get them back to school.

Santiba帽ez and her co-researchers analyzed data from 444,000 students in four urban, rural and suburban mid- to large-size school districts over eight school years, from 2014 to 2022. The researchers did not disclose the names of the districts in the study.

Data was also broken down by grade level, year and type of English learner status. Although English learners are often treated as a homogenous group, they鈥檙e made up of five different categories of students who typically have different needs, outcomes and prevalence of chronic absenteeism, according to Santiba帽ez. This study is the first to disaggregate this group, which Santiba帽ez said will allow district leaders and policy makers to better understand how to best serve students鈥� unique needs.  

鈥淚t’s important, I think, for the research community to look at these groups differently, because they’re going to exhibit things that 鈥� when you lump them all together 鈥� it’s going to wash out some of these nuances,鈥� Santiba帽ez said.

The rising absenteeism trend is most evident and persistent for students currently identified as English learners and long-term English learners 鈥� students who have been classified as English learners for at least six years, the research found. Reclassified students 鈥� those who were previously identified as English learners but have since demonstrated English proficiency鈥� are less likely to be absent, which matches previous research. Although they also saw a rise in chronic absenteeism in 2021, they鈥檝e since returned to previously lower levels.

The study also found that as English language learners enter middle and high school, they鈥檙e more likely to be absent. Santiba帽ez said that this mirrors when these students tend to get put into lower-rigor 鈥� often lower-quality 鈥� classes, which might lead to a dip in engagement.

English learners are a growing population, representing just over of students enrolled in public schools nationally. The vast majority (76%) as their primary language, followed by Arabic (2%) and Chinese (2%).

Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, said she鈥檚 not surprised by the outcomes of the study and has noticed similar trends across California over the past year and a half. It鈥檚 harder to nail down national trends, she said, because they鈥檙e not tracked the same way, but the 2021-22 federal data shows that the English learner chronic absenteeism rate was about 36% 鈥� six percentage points higher  

鈥楽omething changed鈥�

While English learners often face to educational success 鈥� stemming from lack of services, deficit-laden instructional practices and inconsistent inter-district policies 鈥� researchers hypothesize a number of demographic factors may have historically encouraged strong attendance. For example, the majority of English learners are the children of immigrants who tend to move less and

After the onset of the pandemic, though, absenteeism among English learners rose disproportionately as additional factors came into play, including a to services and support. 

English language learners and their families were often among 鈥渢he essential workers and the communities most affected economically 鈥� and health-wise 鈥� by the pandemic [so] they may experience extreme death and trauma,鈥� according to Chang. Parents who were essential workers were also less likely to be home to make sure their kids were attending remote classes.

鈥淣ow coming back from the pandemic,鈥� she added, 鈥測ou still have issues of access to health care to prevent kids from getting sick in the first place.鈥� And families may still be confused and overly cautious about when to keep sick kids at home.聽

There are also safety and bullying concerns,聽Chang said.聽According to the 2023 鈥� which surveyed 980 families, the vast majority of whom identified as Latino with kids who are English learners 鈥� almost two-thirds of families reported having concerns about gun violence, 79% reported they were worried about an illness outbreak and 1 in 3 said they do not have access to medical care.聽

Chang emphasized the need to understand and combat the root causes of chronic absenteeism since 鈥渞emediation is always more costly than making sure kids get what they need in the first place.鈥�

鈥淚 think we should be understanding the reasons from an assets-based perspective,鈥� said lead researcher Santiba帽ez, 鈥渇rom a sense of knowing that this was not a group that was disengaged with school before. This is not a group that’s been traditionally absent from schools. So something changed, and I think we need to understand how it changed and how can we go back to re-engaging these students and their families with schools.鈥�

From purchasing alarm clocks, donating Uber gift cards, showing up on families鈥� doorsteps and even attempting to help parents plan their vacations, Clear Creek ISD employees are exhausting their options to get students to show up to school.

In the roughly 40,000-student district southeast of Houston, 17 percent of students were considered 鈥渃hronically absent鈥� during the 2022-23 school year 鈥� meaning they missed at least 18 school days. That鈥檚 up nearly double from five years ago.

The issue is not unique to Clear Creek ISD. Mirroring a nationwide, persistent trend, rates of chronically absent Houston-area students exploded after the pandemic. It鈥檚 a phenomenon that leaves many wondering why kids aren鈥檛 coming to school like they used to 鈥� and what it will take to fix that.

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Houston’s other largest districts did not make administrators available for an interview for this story.

School leaders and education experts say high absenteeism has devastating ripple effects on students鈥� academic performance, school district funding and society鈥檚 overall perceived importance of the classroom. Yet there is no clear solution, causing schools to scramble to improve attendance habits.

鈥淭here did become the feeling of, 鈥業s schooling optional?鈥欌�� said Holly Hughes, Clear Creek ISD鈥檚 assistant superintendent of elementary education. 鈥淲e know that the habits start in pre-K, in our earliest years, with parents understanding the value and the intention. It鈥檚 a lot to get our students to school in the morning.鈥�

When schools returned in-person after the pandemic sent classes online, most large Houston districts saw their chronic absenteeism rates double. Those rates decreased in the 2022-23 school year 鈥� the most recently available state data 鈥� but still remain much higher than pre-pandemic levels.

鈥楧o we even need the school?鈥�

The pandemic shattered the routine of going to school each morning, and once students returned, the lingering option of remote learning was largely seen as an acceptable alternative for when students don鈥檛 show up in person.

鈥淧eople became comfortable staying home and not going to school, where they could dial in or not dial in,鈥� said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators. 鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 anybody there to enforce that.鈥�

That鈥檚 created an issue larger than anyone knows how to fix, let alone any one district, says Joshua Childs, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin鈥檚 College of Education. To him, it signals to him a shift in the culture of American schooling.

鈥淎t this moment, we are wrestling, as a country, as a state, in terms of what we value when it comes to educating the kids under the age of 18,鈥� Childs said. 鈥淟ike, what’s the value of education, and what’s the purpose of the school itself? And do we even need the school?鈥�

School leaders and education experts agree that a student鈥檚 attendance has major impacts on their academic achievement. The Texas Education Agency that chronically absent students are more likely to perform poorly on standardized tests, and they鈥檙e less likely to attend or complete college.

In a late June State Board of Education meeting, TEA commissioner Mike Morath hypothesized that increased absences could be a reason why studentg across Texas.

鈥淥ur broad hypothesis of this is that Covid caused much higher absenteeism from instruction, and as a result, much more mathematics gaps,鈥� Morath said. 鈥淭he linear nature of mathematics as a discipline is such that if a student misses little chunks of that discipline along the way, that may or may not cause them immediate problems, but it will certainly, at some point in time, prevent them from achieving higher levels of mathematics.鈥�

But the problem lies in getting students and families to understand these stakes.

鈥淥ne of the things that the pandemic 鈥� maybe raised more questions around, is, 鈥榃hat’s actually the purpose of schooling? If I can do it through my phone. I can learn through TikTok. I can learn through using technology in different ways, and arriving in a building every single day may not be what’s best for my kids or myself,鈥欌�� Childs said. 鈥淚t has big impacts, as far as academic outcomes, employment, post-secondary opportunities, social, mental, physical health outcomes. All of that is impacted based on a child鈥檚 attendance.鈥�

Across-the-board issue

Chronic absenteeism affects students across different demographics 鈥� campus-level data shows that in some Houston districts, schools in both affluent and underserved communities post similarly high rates of absenteeism.

Students in underserved areas may miss school because they lack necessities like transportation, or because they have a job to support their families. Meanwhile, students from more affluent families may miss class to take regular vacations or visit colleges. Across the board, it鈥檚 easier to keep kids at home because parents are increasingly able to work remotely.

With no simple root cause, there鈥檚 no crystal-clear solution to keeping kids in the classroom.

Hughes, the Clear Creek administrator, said she found it isn’t as simple as providing more 鈥渨raparound鈥� resources such as clothing and transportation. They鈥檝e had to urge families to schedule doctor appointments and college visits on staff professional development days, supply suggested dates for vacations, and try to communicate the overall importance of the in-person school routine.

鈥淚t’s important to start those traditions, those expectations and those structures in the home early,鈥� Hughes said. 鈥淕oing to school on a daily basis and committing to that follow through every day, it takes a lot on a family unit. 鈥� I think it became hard for parents.鈥�

A pricey problem

Brown said declining attendance is a circular issue 鈥� the more kids miss school, the less money districts have to rectify low attendance.

The Texas government funds schools based on their average daily attendance, meaning total attendance counts for the year are divided by the number of instructional days to produce the number of students a district is funded for.

Proponents of attendance-based funding say it provides incentive for improving attendance, while critics have long argued it more heavily penalizes schools with students dealing with socioeconomic factors that drive absenteeism.

Many school districts across Texas have outlined multimillion-dollar budget deficits this year, and several Houston-area school boards have pointed to declining attendance rates as a factor contributing to their financial woes.

鈥淪chools are working really hard to try to get the kids in but it takes the parents and the kids, as well, to get them into school,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淪chools can’t do much on attendance, other than encourage and try to build an environment where kids want to be there.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

But for many families at 112th St. S.T.E.A.M. Academy in Watts, a pair of clean pants and a shirt is such a struggle that it has become one of the main contributors to chronic absenteeism, which is when students miss 15 or more days or classes. 

鈥淐hildren can be brutally honest sometimes,鈥� said principal Jose Hernandez. 鈥�…When kids come with dirty or smelly clothes, the other kids will definitely point it out to them,鈥� making them targets of bullying.

For years, Hernandez and his staff have been helping families work through this issue. Hernandez once helped a family without a working washer by providing clothing for their child. He has also given families money for their needs, including for laundry expenses. 

In May, the school was one 20 that received a new washing machine and and the Think Watts Foundation; along with $2 million in clothing to schools serving low income students. Earlier this year, LAUSD also announced a for homeless students as part of the district’s attempt to combat chronic absenteeism. 

Hernandez hopes the machines will ease the pressure on parents and make it easier for students to return to school. 

In an interview with LA School Report, Hernandez talked about his challenging upbringing and how it shapes his commitment to his students; and why small things, like a washing machine, can create a big impact.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

LA School Report: What鈥檚 your relationship with 112th St. S.T.E.A.M. Academy? 

Jose Hernandez: I grew up very near Watts, just two miles from where I’m teaching now. Many of the children here are going through situations similar to what I experienced as a child. I grew up in a sometimes dysfunctional household. My father was an alcoholic, while my mom, bless her soul, always worked really hard to make sure we had a roof over our heads and proper clothing for school. My dad was in and out of the picture because of his alcoholism. However, when I was 13, he stopped drinking, got a stable job, and improved his ways, which helped me have a somewhat normal upbringing during my teenage years.

When I see my students coming to school, I see myself and my sisters in all of these kids. So when someone tells me, “Mr. Hernandez, this kid has a problem and will not learn,” they’re talking about me. I don’t want to hear that at 112, and I’ll be unapologetic about it. I’ll tell them, “Don’t ever say that one kid at my school cannot learn or cannot behave. The problem is with us. We need to fix it so that he can learn and behave.” Because if you’re talking about him, you’re talking about me. At 112, that’s my relationship with these kids. I say it again and again: At 112, we are here to serve.

Tell us about your school demographic.  

My school community’s demographics are approximately 69% Latino students and about 31% African American students. Over 95% of my students come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The school is also fed by the Nickerson Gardens housing projects, the second-largest housing project west of the Mississippi River. Many of my kids live in the projects often for generations, and they come with a lot of baggage. They’ve seen things that many of us can only imagine and more.

At 112, we constantly battle chronic absenteeism and strive to foster empathy among our students, ensuring they support and are not mean to one another. This is a daily effort. We build their empathetic side at school, but they return to the community and hear other influences, making it an uphill battle, like fighting against the current.

Despite the challenges, we have wonderful families here who value education. They want their children to use education as a stepping stone to move to more affluent neighborhoods. Many see education as a means of moving out of the projects.

How does not having clean clothes contribute to chronic absenteeism?

Students and children can be brutally honest sometimes, and when kids come with dirty or smelly clothes, the other kids will definitely point it out to them. They’re not going to sugarcoat it. They’ll definitely just say, “Why do your clothes smell so bad?” or “Why are your clothes always dirty?” This definitely impacts students’ self-confidence, making it an environment where kids don’t want to be. Why would you want to be in a place where people make you feel bad about yourself? This is definitely a contributing factor to kids not wanting to be in school.

Especially as kids move up the grades, this becomes more significant. At our school, we have classes from Transitional Kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade. First graders when they are told they’re stinky or something like that, but they usually just blow it off and keep playing. But a fourth grader or a fifth grader who hears that they’re clothes are stinky or soiled is going to think twice about it. At that age, they hold what their peers say in very high regard.

Could you provide an example to help better understand the problem these families face?

I had a situation where a particular family in my community had no washer. I gave the kid clothing because I didn’t want him to be bullied or made to feel bad by his classmates. I talked to the mom, and she shared with me that her washer wasn’t running, so I offered to try to get it fixed for her.

I got a technician and paid him personally for it to get it fixed. 

The technician went into the house to check the unit, and later he called me and said, “Mr. Hernandez, I checked the unit, but to fix it, I need to order a specific part that costs over $350. However, I must be honest with you, even if I change that part, there’s no guarantee it will run for a long period because the unit is full of roaches. When I opened it up, there were a lot of roaches, and I don’t know if they were eating at the connections or what. I don’t want to take your money and provide a temporary fix because, two or three months from now, you’ll be in the same situation due to the roach problem.”

That’s very difficult to hear. It’s hard. So, we’ve been working with that particular family to try to schedule them to use our new washer and dryer when it is installed. In the meantime, we’ve working on getting her to a laundromat.  

How did the school handle these issues before the LA Rams and the Think Watts Foundation donated the washing machine set?

That’s a two-part answer. First, we try to ensure that the children have adequate clothing for school to build up their confidence. Second, we talk to the kids who are around them or who might be making them feel uncomfortable, encouraging them to be more empathetic towards their classmates to prevent them from hurting others’ feelings. Maybe they don’t mean to, but it’s important that they don’t continue to hurt these kids’ feelings.

We have some donated items here at the school, and we often make sure to change them out for the clothing they are wearing. They take both the clean clothes we’ve given them and their old clothes back home. Additionally, we reach out to the parents to find out the actual issue, such as why “little Jose” is coming to school in soiled clothing. We try to get to the root of the problem. Sometimes we hear stories like, “We don’t have a washer and dryer right now,” or “We’re not getting the check, so finances are tight and we don’t have money for the laundromat,” or “Someone is sick and can’t get out of bed or the wheelchair to go to the laundromat around the corner to clean the clothes.” Sometimes I’ll visit a family and donate $20 or $30 so they can get at least a few loads of laundry done and dried, alleviating the problem for that week. 

What is this going to look like when it opens? 

Access is going to be limited because we can’t have everybody come in and use it. With wear and tear, things will eventually break down. However, we will have a system in place. I’ve been discussing it with my team, though nothing is set in stone yet. It will be appointment-only and managed through our Parent Center, which serves as our community liaison center. 

An employee will oversee the process to ensure proper use of the machines. This oversight is crucial for maintaining their functionality. Access won’t be open to everyone; there needs to be a structured system. I will also incorporate teacher input since they know the students best and work closely with them daily.

Is it going to be free? 

Currently, it’s completely free. We have enough detergent for several months and are conducting a recycling program at the school site. The funds generated from recycling will be used to purchase more detergent and support the Wellness Center’s resources for the washer and dryer.

Two state education boards set aggressive new goals Tuesday for student achievement, attracting and retaining a diverse teacher corps and reducing chronic absenteeism.

It was the second time this year that the Maryland State Board of Education and the Blueprint for Maryland鈥檚 Future Accountability and Implementation Board held a joint meeting, and members said their decision to set higher targets is intentional.

鈥淵ou have to have aggressive targets if you鈥檙e going to make that kind of gain,鈥� said William 鈥淏rit鈥� Kirwan, vice chair of the Blueprint board and chancellor emeritus of the University System of Maryland, during a break in Tuesday鈥檚 meeting.

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Of the new goals approved by the boards, the proposed  changes to student achievement scores were the most notable.

The boards voted to set a new goal for in literacy, formerly known as English language arts, from 48% in 2023 to 63% by the 2025-26 school year for all students in grades three through eight.

The goal to improve math proficiency is even more ambitious. For fifth graders, the goal is to increase the proficiency level from 27% to 46% over the same time period. For students in grades third through eight, the proficiency level target would be raised from 23% to 46%.

When 鈥測ou鈥檝e got an overall proficiency rate of 23% in mathematics, that鈥檚 a long way to go to show significant improvement,鈥� said Maryland Superintendent Carey Wright. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 set ambitious goals, you鈥檙e never going to reach them. And if you set a low bar, that鈥檚 what you鈥檙e going to get.鈥�

Wright told that one of her educational targets is to get Maryland in the top 10 in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation鈥檚 Report Card, by 2027. Currently, Maryland ranks 40th.

Besides student achievement, the state also wants to boost teacher diversity and retention.

About 46% of new teachers hired statewide this year were teachers of color. The boards aim to increase that to 55% by the 2026-27 school year.

Schools are currently beating the goal of retaining 70% of teachers of color for three years, with the retention rate now standing at 74%. But both boards voted Tuesday to raise the retention rate goal to 78% in the next three years.

The state also seeks to cut chronic absenteeism by half, from 30% reported in 2022-23 school year to 15% by the 2025-26 school year. Any student who misses 10% of school days is considered chronically absent.

Although state law requires the Blueprint board to make final approvals on any documents, initiatives and proposals in connection with the 10-year education reform plan, it must collaborate with the state Department of Education on expertise to improve learning.

In connection with department goals on workforce diversity, they align with at least one of the Blueprint鈥檚 priorities: . The other four priorities, also called pillars, are , providing , preparing students for  and governance and accountability.

Clarence Crawford, who served his last meeting Tuesday as the state Board of Education president, used a football analogy to assess the state鈥檚 work to improve overall education.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e looking to do is to build a dynasty so we鈥檙e looking at the culture change necessary to achieve the goal, but also the culture change necessary to sustain the goal,鈥� he said.

鈥淭his is not an academic exercise. We鈥檙e impacting people鈥檚 lives. That鈥檚 the magnitude,鈥� Crawford said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 within reach. It鈥檚 not going to be easy. There鈥檚 going to be bumps along the way, but I believe we can get there.鈥�

Blueprint plans

Both education bodies also discussed Blueprint updates that included submitted last month from every school district in state to the Blueprint board, also known as the AIB.

In the past week, officials said, department and AIB staff reviewed plans from all 24 school districts with suggestions to revise the plans.

The May documents are a follow-up to brief in which school officials responded to at least five questions and prompts from the state on the top challenges they are facing implementing the Blueprint.

No specific school district was mentioned Tuesday, but some common themes emerged from the plans, include prioritizing stakeholder outreach and involvement, increasing collaboration with school district staff and local schools and identifying supports for students who haven鈥檛 met the college and career readiness standard.

Emma Pellerin, implementation plan director with the AIB, said six employees with her agency and 30 staff members with the department reviewed all 24 school district plans.

鈥淚t took about 10 hours to just review each plan,鈥� she said during the meeting.

State officials continue to review all school district plans that include possible revisions and other feedback.

Rachel Hise, executive director with the AIB, said to reporters some plans could 鈥減ossibly鈥� be approved by the Blueprint board July 18.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on and .

One in four Iowa students was chronically absent from school during the 2021-22 school year, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Officials hope a tiered approach to the problem will encourage schoolwide attendance and remove any barriers to attendance. They also hope additional investments in Iowa schools will counter the growing trend.

Executive Director of Student Services at Dubuque Community School District Shirley Horstman said her district uses a three-tiered approach to improve attendance schoolwide.

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The first tier is aimed at all students and encourages schools to lay out a clear school schedule, recognize good attendance and establish the benefits of attendance.

The second tier is for students absent for 5% to 10% of the school year. Schools will reach out to the parents of those students and look for ways to remove any obstacles to regular class attendance.

If it鈥檚 a transportation issue, the school may help the parents set up a local carpool, teach students how to use city buses or recommend having an older sibling walk them to school, according to Horstman.

The third tier is for chronically absent students who miss more than 10% of school days. For those students, schools will set up a more formal conversation with parents and create an attendance agreement outlining joint efforts to improve attendance.

Missing that much school puts students at an educational disadvantage, said Anne Fischer, executive director of Common Good Iowa, which helped with the report. 鈥淥nce you get behind, it鈥檚 hard to get caught up,鈥� she said.

Fischer said chronic absenteeism rates have grown across the nation since the pandemic. Iowa鈥檚 rate of chronic absenteeism of 26% is better than the national average of 30%, but both rates are still higher than the pre-pandemic national average of 16%.

Fourth-grade students who never missed a day of school scored proficient or above proficient in reading 40% of the time compared to 14% for students who missed ten or more days, according to the report.

It鈥檚 not just grades that are impacted by constant absences, Fischer said. A 2012 John Hopkins University study tracking Rhode Island students for seven years found that chronically absent students were more than twice as likely to get suspended or repeat a grade.

The increasing absenteeism rates negatively affect those who regularly attend class as well. Students in high-absence classrooms are more likely to have lower test scores, according to the report.

Horstman said when teachers have multiple chronically absent students, they are forced to repeat old material, create make-up assignments and spend more time trying to catch students up.

With more funding, Horstman said districts like hers could do at-home visits to discover any barriers to attendance and remind students of the importance of attendance.

鈥淚f we could do home visits to [chronically absent] students at the beginning of the year and welcome them and let them know we want them here, that鈥檚 something that I think could really move the needle,鈥� Horstman said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 a funding issue and it鈥檚 also a staffing issue.鈥�

Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, said addressing chronic absenteeism means addressing the causes behind it.

鈥淲hen kids are not in school it鈥檚 usually a sign that something鈥檚 going on that we need to address. We need to not blame kids and families, but we need to understand why and then when we understand why, we can come up with solutions,鈥� Chang said.

Students who experience instabilities at home such as divorce, domestic violence or substance abuse are more likely to be chronically absent, according to the report. Students facing such issues are also more likely to repeat a grade and be indifferent to succeeding academically.

Chang praised the Iowa Department of Education for making school-absence data available for all Iowa school districts as it allows them to keep better track of student attendance numbers across the state.

The state agency also provides grants to schools to help them address chronic absenteeism, according to Heather Doe, spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Education.

Fischer said greater investments in Iowa schools are needed to counteract the growing tide of chronic absenteeism.

鈥淎t a time when costs have been rising faster and when students鈥� needs have been rising faster, we鈥檙e not prioritizing our schools in ways that we used to and so maybe it鈥檚 not surprising that we鈥檙e starting to see a little sign of erosion,鈥� Fischer said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

But being awakened in the middle of the night by sharp pains was new for Coreano and their family. Rats had begun to bite them in their sleep. Later that morning, they went to their Kensington school and pretended nothing happened.

Chronicling the life of Corem and two other Puerto Rican students from Philadelphia, author Nikhil Goyal presents harrowing accounts of childhood in his latest book . 

Readers see Corem, Ryan Rivera and Giancarlos Rodriguez grow up overpoliced and underfed. By the time they reached high school, the system threatened to close some 37 schools, and only after , shuttered 24. 

In some cases walking an hour one-way to school without transportation after an eviction left them displaced, Corem, Ryan and Giancarlos give low-income children a human face and serve as a cautionary tale. The Census Bureau has revealed the rate of childhood poverty has doubled, and the country will soon see pandemic-era relief for families, schools and come to an end. 

鈥淚f we believe that schools should be equitable and humane and child centered, then we’ve got to be willing to fight for an agenda that will end poverty,鈥� said Goyal, who for the last two years served as the senior policy advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders on the Senate鈥檚 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Budget Committees. 

Their stories illuminate exactly how economic instability and harsh discipline policies impact children鈥檚 ability to learn safely, making the case for change, particularly as educators nationwide grapple with how best to support students academically after pandemic disruptions.

Making economic stimuluses like the Child Tax Credit permanent, Goyal added, would mean 鈥渢he lives of educators and school staff and counselors would be a lot easier.鈥� 

Named one of 2023鈥檚 best books by the New Yorker, also illuminates how school policies governing students can disproportionately shape entire futures, particularly for students of color who are more often suspended and expelled than their peers. Zero tolerance discipline policies, for instance, put children like Ryan Rivera in juvenile incarceration and harsh schooling isolated from friends for years, after being pushed to light a trashcan on fire at 12 years old.

In conversation with 社区黑料, Goyal reflects on school closures, community schooling, chronic absenteeism, and what policies stand to make a difference for the nearly living in poverty nationwide.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You frame childhood poverty as a crisis to be 鈥� why release this book now? What鈥檚 happening?

The Census Bureau released its 鈥� child poverty more than doubled. More than 5 million children are plunged into poverty. It was the single largest increase in poverty in recorded history, just an astonishing development in public policy that I think deserves enormous attention as well as a full-throated response from people in Washington and people in power.聽

The increase in child poverty coincides with the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit, economic stimulus payments, expanded unemployment insurance, and a number of other programs that have enormously benefited children and families, whether in terms of food assistance, or housing assistance, or Medicaid access.聽

We’re also at this moment where a lot of districts throughout the country are facing dropping enrollments, facing fiscal cliffs with the end of ESSER funds. People are anticipating a lot more consolidations, and possibly something like what happened in Philadelphia where a school system weighed closing dozens of schools. What are some lessons that school leaders might glean from what happened in Philadelphia? 

In 2013, the school district proposed closing some three dozen. The argument was that the district was bleeding in a major fiscal deficit. In the book I cite a major report by Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by the district to evaluate the fiscal state of schools. One of the recommendations was a mass closure of schools. They also recommended a mass firing of teachers and other school staff and a very market-oriented approach to public education. The key recommendation was taken up by the school district, against the wishes of students and parents and educators and unions, who were an incredibly robust coalition.聽

Pew Research and others have found that school closures haven’t actually yielded the balance of savings that the architects originally envisioned. They cause a lot of displacement, educational instability. And, and in many instances, students are not actually necessarily attending so-called 鈥渉igher performing schools鈥� after their schools shut down. 

I read about Fairhill School, this extraordinary school in the poorest neighborhood of Philadelphia, which had been serving generations upon generations of children of the working class. This was a school that had been deeply underfunded. And in spite of that, they were still able to provide children with a nurse, a safe environment. 

Their test scores weren’t as good as suburban districts, sure. But does that mean that we should necessarily be closing a school like that which has been an anchor of the community? I don’t think so. I think if we provide public schools with equitable resources, and the type of respect that they deserve, so many of the issues that folks might point you to in public education, I don’t think would exist. 

The charter movement has capitalized on this. But if you go back to the history of charter schools, and you go back to Minnesota and some of the earliest charter schools, these were laboratories of progressivism. We’re gonna bring innovation, bring the best, experiment with interesting ideas in pedagogy and curriculum and instruction and the teaching force. See what works and then bring the best ideas into the public system. That is the model that I would prefer, where charter schools work in tandem with public schools, not as competition.

Something I appreciated while reading is that you give these trends and the political events around them a human face, from the war on drugs and no tolerance policies for violence that led to thousands of incarcerated youth. What鈥檚 currently underway that you think might be on track to cause more devastation? Particularly for Black and brown children?

I think there’s a dramatic rise in the privatization movement. We’re seeing a dramatic increase in the voucher schemes as well as charter expansion. In Philadelphia alone, nearly 40% of children attend either charter schools or cyber charter schools. There’s cities all over this country where traditional public schools have become dismantled, and we’re seeing a rise of the private sector intervening in public education. There’s obviously some really amazing organizing and efforts by teachers unions and advocacy groups like Journey for Justice fighting back against those policies all over the country.

What’s at stake, if these models are to continue at the scale that they have? What would be the impact for students, based on your research and experience with Philadelphia?

If we continue down this path, where more and more charters replace traditional public schools, where voucher programs siphon even more dollars away from the public system into the private system, particularly the religious sector, then I think that’s one of the most grave and profound threats to American democracy. I think the foundations of American democracy are found in public education. I think it’s one of the areas of our society that has not been fully transformed and taken over by the market.

Look at health care, look at energy, look at housing. By and large, public education has withstood a number of those assaults over generations, but I think public schools are facing their most serious threats. The pandemic didn’t help. We can debate about school closures, the efficacy of that or not, but I think the reality is that they breed a distrust among parents who were rightfully frustrated about making sure that there was a place for their children to be during the day and be educated. 

One exception to this threat you鈥檝e identified to the traditional public system is the expansion of 3K and pre-K programs in many cities. 

The early childhood education space is very fascinating to me. Public dollars might go to both public providers as well as private providers, and you’re seeing that there’s not a sustained level of federal dollars. A lot of those private providers cannot remain open because their margins are so low. 

There is a growing interest from states all over this country as well as cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they have poured an enormous amount of money into public pre-K. We’re talking about an area of great optimism. I am deeply encouraged by efforts by states and cities to expand early childhood education, because it is not only the right thing to do, it is good for our economy and society.

At one point in the book, you say their story is one of survival, where 18th birthdays are not rites of passage, but miracles. That it’s a story of social contract in tatters. In this reality, where so many children grow up in poverty, what are some best practices for school systems?

I think every school should be turned into a community school, where they have wraparound services, social and health supports. Universal free school meals, extended hours, restorative justice, well paid teachers and staff and modernized infrastructure. 

There are incredible examples of community schools all over this country. I will point to Cincinnati as the gold standard for community schooling, because they’ve converted virtually all of their public schools into Community Learning Centers. I am always struck by the fact that they have dentists and mental health professionals and other medical staff and doctors who are literally based in the school itself to provide care to students. 

We have to recognize that the issues and challenges that young people experience in their homes and in their communities don’t get left behind when they go to school every day. It affects their ability to learn. It affects their relationships with their teachers and counselors, and their relationships with their peers. 

We’ve got to really recognize that poverty and economic insecurity is the root cause of many of these educational inequalities. That schools can be places where children can get access to healthcare and all their social support. I’m very encouraged by that trend across the country. And the research shows that community schools have a positive impact on absenteeism, on truancy, on graduation rates, and student engagement. 

It’s the idea of, meet people where they’re at, provide them with the basic, basic building blocks for dignified life and you will see many of the social problems that once existed, either be reduced or eliminated.

were chronically absent by the end of the last school year, and we’re hearing more and more about school avoidance. What does Corem鈥檚 story reveal about this trend and its links with mental health, which is what some believe to be a root cause right now?聽

It’s a great crisis. I would say that Corem has a harrowing, fascinating story with a lot of lessons. Today Corem uses they/them pronouns. When they were growing up, they lived with their mother who was disabled. They endured consistent housing and food insecurity. They would run out of food. They had to endure evictions. They moved in some years, twice or three times, which meant that they had to constantly switch schools and never really settle into one school. That meant Corem鈥檚 academic performance faltered.聽

I know they鈥檝e suffered from absenteeism at times, not due to their own failings, but simply because they were deprived of the basic necessities of a decent life. They didn’t have the tools and resources that would allow him to get to school on time every day. There’s one moment in the book where the landlord tells their mother that sorry, we just sold the house and you have to leave immediately. 

That means, in the middle of the school year, they have to walk more than an hour from the new home to the old school. Their mother was able to get them a public transit pass, but it just goes to show homelessness and housing insecurity are huge obstacles to consistent and regular school attendance. 

There’s a lot of research to show that homeless students in particular make up a significant part of the population that is going to be absent. As emergency rental assistance winds down and now we’re more than two years since the end of the national eviction moratorium, our families are really suffering through the housing affordability crisis. And I think we see that play out with children.

Pint-sized hall monitors in yellow neon vests greet their fellow students first thing in the morning at the Tornillo PreK-8 School as part of a program meant to encourage them to come to class every day.

As children shuffle into their classrooms, teachers begin taking counts of who’s absent the moment the school day starts at 7:30 a.m., even though attendance isn鈥檛 due until 10 a.m.

From there, it’s a sprint for staff to reach parents and find those missing students.

鈥淪taff start making calls to parents to find out if a kid is going to be making it to school,鈥� said Tornillo Independent School District Superintendent Rosy Vega-Barrio. 鈥淚f we don’t get an answer right then and there, we send an officer to the house to find out what’s going on.鈥�

Once a student starts accumulating absences, school leaders like Tornillo PreK-8 Principal Myrna Lopez-Patty set up meetings with parents to talk to them about Texas attendance laws, which require school districts to begin court proceedings if a student has three unexcused absences.

鈥淵ou’re meeting with me as a preventive measure because we don’t want to file for court,鈥� Lopez-Patty told parent Brenda Guillen and her son Nathan during one of those meetings in March.

Guillen said that she did not know her son could be in danger of losing credit if he missed more than 10% of his classes for the year. In the end, she said she was glad she went to the meeting before Nathan鈥檚 attendance became a bigger problem.

鈥淚 was confident with his grades. I thought he was doing great, but I completely disregarded the fact that he needed to be on time more and in school more,鈥� Guillen told El Paso Matters.

Vega-Barrio said that these efforts helped it become the only district in El Paso County to lower its chronic absenteeism rate since students returned to school from the pandemic, although it still remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The 2018-19 school year was the last before the pandemic disruption. Schools across the country shut down in March 2020 and most remained closed the rest of the 2019-20 school year. In El Paso, most classes remained closed in the fall of 2020 and reopened in early 2021.

Throughout Texas, the number of chronically absent students 鈥� characterized as students who miss at least 10% of class, or about 18 days a year 鈥� rose from 11% during the 2018-19 school year to 15% in 2019-20. That increased to 26% during the 2021-22 school year, according to the most recent Federal Report Cards data released by the Texas Education Agency.

Nationally, chronic absenteeism nearly doubled from 15% in 2018-19 to 28% in 2021-22, according to a compiled by Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee in partnership with the Associated Press.

El Paso County saw a similar trend, as chronic absenteeism rates in school districts countywide grew between 11% to 26% on average over those three years.

Tornillo ISD, a rural school district on the eastern outskirts of the county with less than 900 students, was an outlier. The district saw its chronic absenteeism rate drop from 10% in 2018-19 to 2% during the 2019-20 school year but then shot up to 22% in the 2020-21 school year. The rate dropped to 14% during the 2021-22 school year 鈥� the lowest in the county that year but still above the pre-pandemic rates

That year, the El Paso Independent School District had a 36% chronic absenteeism rate 鈥� the highest in the county. The Socorro Independent School District had a 28% rate and the Ysleta Independent School District reported a 25% rate.

Outside the city limits, 35% of students in the San Elizario Independent School District were chronically absent, with 32% in the Fabens Independent School District, 28% in the Clint Independent School District and 20% in the Canutillo Independent School District. The Anthony Independent School District kept its chronic absenteeism rate the same 鈥� at 25% 鈥� between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.

Texas schools are required to keep track of which students are chronically absent, but most do not monitor the data at the district level and rely on the TEA鈥檚 annual reports.

While most El Paso schools don鈥檛 track their overall chronic absenteeism rates, some school leaders said average daily attendance has improved since the 2021-22 school year but has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Now some experts are concerned that this rise in absenteeism could have negative effects on students who missed out on some of the benefits of attending school every day, like getting counseling, socializing, and participating in extracurricular activities.

鈥淭he earlier students attend school consistently, in terms of their age, the more likely they’re going to graduate and go on to whatever postsecondary success looks for them,鈥� University of Texas at Austin education professor Joshua Childs told El Paso Matters. 鈥淚t can provide some structure and some organization. 鈥� It’s a place where they can get a couple of meals a day, and be around adults that care about them and engage with them. For many kids, it’s a critical component of their daily life.鈥�

Research shows chronically absent students tend to perform worse academically and are more likely to drop out of school.

One Chicago found that students who are chronically absent in pre-kinder, kindergarten and first grade are less likely to read at grade level by the end of the second grade. 

Chronic absenteeism during the sixth grade is an indicator that a student will drop out of high school, and students who were chronically absent between eighth and 12th grade were seven times more likely to drop out, according to a 2017

What is chronic absenteeism and what causes it?

In Texas, students are considered chronically absent if they miss at least 10% 鈥� or 18 days 鈥� of a school year, even if an absence is excused. 

States have been required to report and track chronic absenteeism to receive Title I funding since 2015 when the Every Student Succeeds Act 鈥� or ESSA 鈥� was signed into law to replace the No Child Left Behind Act. Before 2015, Texas only tracked average daily attendance, which made it hard to tell if absences were concentrated among specific students.

鈥淲hat ESSA has allowed us to do is get at the frequency of students missing school and how much they鈥檙e missing,鈥� Childs said.

Experts and educators say that in many cases, students who are absent for long periods often face obstacles that make it hard for them to get to class every day. This can include a lack of transportation, illness and personal issues that disrupt a family’s normal day-to-day lives.

San Elizario ISD Superintendent Jeannie Meza-Chavez said she has seen cases where students have lost a parent or family member and missed several days of school afterward. In another case, a family鈥檚 home burned down, leaving their children at risk of becoming chronically absent as they face potential homelessness.

The data suggests students living in poverty and those with disabilities face even more of these obstacles than their peers, keeping them from attending school regularly. In Texas, a third of economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year.

鈥淭here鈥檚 just so many different factors,鈥� Meza-Chavez said when asked about the causes of chronic absenteeism.鈥漇ometimes our families just will not send kids to school.鈥�

Because the reasons students miss school vary, Childs said educators and researchers need to dig into why students are missing school and find ways to support them.

School leaders say most districts already make efforts to address the obstacles that keep students from getting to school. Most have social workers who connect parents with outside resources. Some take matters into their own hands finding ways to help families.

At Tornillo ISD school administrators have helped students get transportation to and from school when they are unable to take the bus.

In San Elizario, counselors worked with the family that lost its home to make sure they had a place to go and the children had clothes and shoes to wear to school, Meza-Chavez said.

Why did chronic absenteeism increase?

While changes in chronic absenteeism rates varied by school district, most followed a similar pattern. Chronic absenteeism dropped slightly when the school first closed during the 2019-20 school year, likely because districts did not need to report attendance for the last few weeks of the year, said Ysleta ISD Director of Student Services Diana Mooy.

Chronic absenteeism began to rise slightly during the 2020-21 school year. At this time Texas schools worked under a hybrid model where some students could attend class online while others went in person. Mooy said chronic absenteeism didn鈥檛 rise too much in Ysleta ISD because the state gave school districts more flexibility when taking attendance to accommodate for virtual classes.

鈥淲e usually take attendance in second period, and if you’re in your seat, you’re counted present and if you’re not you’re absent. In (2021-22) we were able to take attendance later in the day so we were given more time and more opportunities to count kids present,鈥� Mooy said. 

Then chronic absenteeism skyrocketed during the 2021-22 school year when all students were required to return to school in person.

Some school leaders El Paso Matters spoke to said they saw parents keep their kids from school more often because of illness and concerns over masking and vaccination policies.

EPISD鈥檚 former truancy prevention director Mark Mendoza said he noticed a shift in families鈥� attitudes around school attendance.

鈥淏efore the quarantine, we had students that were chronically absent for a variety of reasons, but the general culture was that it’s important to go to school every single day,鈥� Medoza told El Paso Matters. 鈥淭hen when the pandemic happened, and the entirety of in-person schools shut down, both students and their families lost that.鈥�

Mendoza suggested that one of the reasons EPISD has the highest chronic absenteeism rate in the county is because as a District of Innovation, it is exempt from the state law that requires students to attend 90% of their classes to get credit.

The District of Innovation concept, adopted under House Bill 1842 during the 2015 legislative session, allows school districts to excuse themselves from certain state requirements. The initiative was intended to give school districts some of the same flexibility as charter schools as long as they adopt an innovation plan.

Mendoza said that since students were allowed to miss more than 10% of their classes and still get credit as long as they got passing grades, attendance suffered.

鈥淢any people began to have the idea that I can learn and get good grades without going to school every single day,鈥� Mendoza said.

EPISD did not respond to a request for comment.

What did Tornillo ISD do differently?

Tornillo ISD is encompassed by expansive desert and farmland along the Rio Grande, with some families living miles from their closest neighbor.

While most schools in Texas saw their chronic absenteeism rates go up when students returned to in-person learning, the rural district saw an increase when students were learning from home. With limited broadband service in the area, district leaders said many students who could not connect to their virtual classes were counted absent.

鈥淭he majority of our kids didn’t have access to Wi-Fi,鈥� Vega-Barrio said. 鈥淓ven though we provided hotspots to every single household, you had multiple kids online at the same time and it just created a lot of issues. I think that’s what hurt us in (2020-2021).鈥�

Additionally, the district has several students who live in Mexico and cross the Tornillo-Guadalupe International Bridge every day to get to school. 

After schools closed and international travel was restricted during the pandemic, 鈥渋t was really hard to get those students to partake in online learning,鈥� Vega-Barrio said.

In many cases parents and guardians also struggled to help their kids with school work or troubleshoot technology issues, leaving them feeling like their children needed to be back in school, Vega-Barrio said.

Tornillo ISD also implemented several programs and measures in 2021 to try to reduce absenteeism including hiring an attendance officer and educating parents on the importance of not missing school.

Texas truancy courts may require parents to participate in counseling, take special classes or do community service. Parents could also face fines and up to three days in jail if they do not comply. They can also face misdemeanor charges if they are found criminally negligent for not forcing their children to go to school, according to the Texas Education Code.

Students with five or more unexcused absences in a semester can also have their enrollment revoked, which could prevent a student from graduating or progressing to the next grade.

Tornillo PreK-8 also started a morning hall patrol program to encourage students to show up to school on time every day.

鈥淭he goal was for us to get students on time but also to build leadership skills and make them feel like they had a role here in the district,鈥� the school鈥檚 secretary, Cassandra Soto, told El Paso Matters. 

Soto, who came up with the idea for the program, said she focused on students who were missing class or showing up late excessively, and those with behavioral issues. Now many of those students have improved their attendance and are eager to go to school every day.

鈥淲e’ve seen a difference in attendance and in their behavior. They actually even told me, 鈥業t’s our job,鈥� so they get here very early,鈥� Soto said.

Tornillo ISD school leaders say these efforts have allowed them to get students back in the classroom and rebound its attendance rates. 

Soto said she thinks that success can be replicated by other schools.

鈥淲e are a small district and we don’t have a lot of resources or the amount of staff other districts have. So I think that if we’re able to do it, they’re able to do it as well,鈥� Soto said.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.