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A new state task force will explore what’s driving chronic absenteeism in schools and how districts can improve attendance. New Jersey could find some clues in Newark Public Schools, where chronic absenteeism rates have dropped in recent years.
A new bill, signed into law by Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way on Dec. 30, directs the state Education Department to create a 17-member task force made up of educators, community members, policymakers, and researchers to study the root causes of absenteeism. The task force will also identify the barriers keeping students out of school, research best practices other states have adopted, and develop recommendations for districts.
Chronic absenteeism, defined by New Jersey as missing 10% or more of the school year, has become an ongoing challenge for schools nationwide, especially in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows that high chronic absenteeism rates can result in poor academic performance, dropout risks, and disengagement from school.
According to the most recent state data, nearly 15% of New Jersey students were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year, a slight improvement from the previous school year’s rate of 16.6%. That means students are missing more school than before the pandemic, when the absenteeism rate was 10.6%.
In Newark Public Schools, the chronic absenteeism rate has significantly dropped since before the pandemic. During the 2023-24 school year, 11.5% of district students were chronically absent, down from 26.8% in 2018-19 school year, according to state school performance data.
As of November, 8.3% of Newark’s public school students have been marked chronically absent or severely chronically absent, meaning students missed six to 10 days of school or more than 10.5 days so far, according to data shared at December’s school board meeting. New Jersey does not have a severely chronically absent category.
Nelida Valentin, vice president of grants and programs for the Princeton Area Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization helping nonprofits tackle local issues, says students miss school for a number of reasons, such as home life struggles or mental health concerns. A coordinated state approach can be useful to “help strengthen and connect what is happening on the ground” with budget priorities to reduce chronic absenteeism rates, Valentin said.
“If we can identify what a healthy community looks like, what a thriving community, what a thriving state looks like, then we need to get down to the nitty-gritty and understand whether that’s happening or not, and how to provide support,” Valentin told Chalkbeat on Thursday.
In previous years, Newark’s public schools have cited housing instability, student health needs, transportation challenges, and the lingering efforts of remote learning as factors that impacted their student attendance. An unstable home life, violence, or trauma could also impact a student’s likelihood of attending and staying in school.
Attendance issues are also far greater in urban school districts compared to rural and suburban districts.
The district, under Superintendent Roger León, has worked to expand its attendance efforts in recent years by launching attendance campaigns such as “Give Me Five,” where each district employee was required to call the families of five students to urge them to show up to school on the first day and launched incentive programs offering gift cards and hockey tickets to high school students who improved their attendance. Despite the efforts, attendance gaps persist.
Valentin said schools have found success in reducing absenteeism rates when “they started to think about their environment, how they collect data,” the ways that they talked, worked, and approached families. In Trenton, the “Arm in Arm” approach funded by their All the Kids Thrive initiative helped place a bilingual “navigator” who worked closely with an elementary school’s attendance team to conduct home visits and find the root causes of absences.
That often looked like connecting families to food pantries, helping install wifi and computer equipment so students could learn at home, and offering referrals to essential services to meet families’ needs, Valentin said.
“The task force is looking at developing recommendations about effective ways to promote family engagement and combat chronic absenteeism. But the next level of that, what kind of modeling would that look like?” Valentin added.
Under the new state law, the task force will also be charged with looking at the disparities in absenteeism among student groups such as low-income families, students with disabilities, English language learners, and homeless students. In Newark Public Schools, 26.4% of homeless students, 11% of low-income students, 15.4% of students with disabilities, and 9.1% of multilingual learners were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year.
The task force will also examine the role mental health and school climate play on absenteeism and develop recommendations on the ways school districts can promote family engagement to tackle chronic absenteeism.
The state is expected to appoint members to the task force within the next 30 days and must issue a report to the governor and legislature no later than one year after its formation.
Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.
