Chronic absenteeism situation in some Colorado schools improving, but there's still a long ways to go
A new Colorado Department of Education analysis says one in four students across the state missed roughly 10% of the 2022-2023 school year, otherwise known as chronic absenteeism.
"We define chronic absenteeism as that inconsistent attendance," said Johann Liljengren, director of the Office of Dropout Prevention and Student Re-Engagement for the Colorado Department of Education. "It's a student who misses 10% or more of the days that they're enrolled in a school. So, if you kind of think of that over the course of a school year, it's missing one or two days every other week.
Liljengren says that could add up to about a month of school that a student misses over the course of a school year, which he says could greatly impact a student's outcome in the classroom.
"On one side there is some positive news in terms of improvement," he said. "Both at the statewide attendance rate, we saw improvements from the 21-22 school year as well as the chronic absenteeism rate."
COE data shows that about 70% of school districts statewide have either stayed the same or gotten better in their attendance data, which Liljengren says shows districts are paying attention and working to coordinate around it.
"We need your kids, we want your kids in school," said Mike Carlson.
Carlson is the Coordinator of Student and Family Engagement at Westminster Public Schools.
"We went from a high of over 50% in 2021 with chronically absent students and we have been able to reduce that by over 18% in the last couple of years, but we still have a lot of work to do," said Carlson.
A lot of the issues regarding absenteeism still linger post pandemic, which has made it challenging for districts to bring the percentage down.
These are the rates for chronically absent students for districts in Adams County during the 2022-2023 school year:
Mapleton 1 - 42.7 % |
Adams 12 Five Star Schools - 33.6% |
Adams County 14 - 46.8% |
School District 27J - 30.7% |
Bennett 29J - 36.8% |
Strasburg 31J - 34.9% |
Westminster Public Schools - 37.9% |
"We've definitely heard from districts on that that there is kind of a resetting on what it means to be sick when you're coming to school and, obviously, we've spent a lot of energy in making sure that we're not spreading sickness," said Lilgengren.
For Westminster Public Schools, Carlson says they have been working to combat the challenge by tracking attendance issues in real-time, enlisting the help of staff to check in on students who are missing school frequently, and understanding the underlying causes of chronic absenteeism.
"Some of the things we hear more frequently are around transportation or around illnesses in the family," he said. "Folks that don't have a large support group to help them with their students before and after school."
Reducing the absentee rate to pre-pandemic numbers has not just been a problem facing Adams County schools. At Denver Public Schools, the chronically absent rate last school year was 41.1%.
"It's something that I'm sad to see," said Quincy Shannon.
Yet, it is not something that is surprising to see for Shannon, who serves as the Dean of Students at Denver School of Science and Technology Green Valley Ranch Middle School.
"One is that there's family commitments that certain individuals have," said Shannon, which could mean having to work for the family, attend cultural events, or even travel abroad if they are not from the U.S.
Shannon says if a student does not have a solid family structure at home, that can also impact whether they show up in the classroom.
"It is challenging when it's not just up to the student. When it's their parent or family members that don't see the value in education," he said. "Even if you hook into that student, it may still be very hard to get them to school."
The lack of transportation can also play a factor.
"At Green Valley Ranch, to take public transportation, we're finding there is not a bus stop right at our school," said Shannon. "And, so, a student has to walk multiple blocks even if they are taking public transportation just to get to school."
Stephen Parce, who is the principal at Denver Justice High School, an alternative school in DPS, believes it could take several years for attendance to return to pre-pandemic numbers, especially with some students now prioritizing entering the workforce sooner because of the challenges COVID-19 brought to their households.
"I still have some students who are working to help their parents take care of rent and other expenses," said Parce. "You're having the challenge of prioritizing and saying I need to keep a roof over my head."
School leaders say part of the solution is continuing to emphasize to families and students that attendance leads to academic success but also ensuring students know they matter.
"When we start to see students that know that people care about them, know that people are invested in their lives, we often times are about to move some of that framework," said Shannon.
