This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education.
For lack of a washing machine, a seventh-grader was nearly lost.
This student, who lives in temporary housing in the Bronx, missed the first two weeks of class. When his mother finally agreed to a visit from a social worker, she revealed that she had no money for laundry and her child had no clothes or shoes for school. Working with a city organization, the school obtained two pairs of sneakers, new clothes and a haircut for the student, plus detergent and a laundry card for his mom. His attendance increased by 25 percentage points over the course of the school year.
With students missing class at alarming rates, it’s well past time to acknowledge that chronic absenteeism has become an educational emergency. Considered a hidden educational crisis before the pandemic, COVID accelerated the problem. In 2022, nearly 16 million students were defined as chronically absent, meaning they missed over 10% of school days — nearly four weeks of class. That’s double the rate of pre-pandemic absences.
NYC community schools are battling chronic absenteeism through emotional support, financial aid, free health checks and access to food pantries
Educators are urgently asking: What kinds of interventions actually work to get students in the classroom? Community schools have some answers. Through the holistic support they provide, from free school health check-ups to food pantries, community schools have reported significantly lower rates of chronic absenteeism than traditional New York City public schools. The 20 community schools in New York City’s Children’s Aid network saw an average decrease in chronic absence of 4 percentage points in 2022-23 from the previous school year.
Start a success mentors program
A major factor in absenteeism is that students face tremendous personal barriers outside the classroom that impact their attendance, and educators don’t have the opportunities or bandwidth to touch base with them individually and help find solutions. As a result, students fall through the cracks because intervention comes too late. To address this, several community schools in New York piloted a success mentors program that pairs students with adult staffers, including teachers, coaches, custodians, security guards and administrative professionals. These mentors create a welcoming environment that can foster consistent attendance and improved academic performance.
