A fresh school year kicked off this week for many districts around the Nutmeg state. At the same time, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CDSE) released its latest report on chronic absenteeism rates, which on average, continued to decline since the pandemic shutdown.
There were 83,000 chronic absences in the 2024-2025 academic year or roughly 17%, the report showed. That’s compared to the school year after the pandemic shutdown where 117,000 students, nearly 24%, were chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of an academic year, according to the state Board of Education.
At a press conference and panel Thursday in Hartford, Charlene Russell-Tucker, commissioner for the Connecticut State Department of Education (CDSE), touted the data as important in ensuring school is relevant for students.
“It's looking at what's happening and what may be barriers to attendance outside the schoolhouse doors,” Russell-Tucker said. “But, it's also making what's happening inside the schoolhouse doors, making learning engaging and relevant for students to be there every day.”
High-needs students – who have a disability, are learning English, or are eligible for free or lower price meals – have an even larger rate of chronic absenteeism. However, those rates have also seen steady improvements since the 2021-2022 school year, which was 34% at the time, compared to last year's rate of nearly 25%.
The data shows improvements in reducing chronic absence among most grades, but the biggest challenge is with high school-age students.
‘Understanding what their challenges are’
There are several puzzle pieces involved in making sure students regularly attend class. Engagement in school, including connections with school instructors and the quality of instruction, play a role. But so does school climate, available transportation and a student’s challenges with the classwork, or their social life, according to the nonprofit Attendance Works.
Frequent illness, being unhoused or caring for someone back home also play a role.
“As those students are older and they're having different responsibilities at a younger age, during that time, we look at everything,” East Hartford Superintendent Thomas Anderson said. “In our educational space, we always have to say, ‘you can't factor out what's coming to them and what they're hearing.’”
Alexandra Estrella, Norwalk’s superintendent, also said students are taking on “adulting” roles much earlier than educators would want them to, “and as a result of that, the traditional programming model doesn't work for them,” Estrella said, noting how the district has modified learning experiences for some students to accommodate them.
East Hartford and Norwalk Public schools are among the districts that get at-home visits through the state’s Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP), which was launched in 2021 to help schools with high absenteeism after the pandemic shutdown. This year, lawmakers approved $7 million more for the program.
“It's really meeting with families and understanding what their challenges are,” said John Frassinelli, division director in the CSDE office of student support services. “We can assist in things like working with our Office of Early Childhood on the state level about child care opportunities, we can work with our DSS and through our own child nutrition programs to talk about what food access issues might be.”
The report cited LEAP as one of several initiatives that has helped the attendance outcomes – and pointed to tens of millions in extra state funding for special education passed this legislative session as another pathway to continue to help students.
