Schools have been in session for about three months — and so far this school year, more than half of Rochester City School District students are chronically missing classes.
Chronically absent means that a student has missed 10% or more of school days in an academic year. Last school year, the district reported that the majority of students were marked as chronically absent. One reason given was a significant amount of housing instability and homelessness.
Padilla High School at the Franklin campus has the highest rate at 83.1%. That's followed by Edison Tech High School (72.5%) and Monroe High School (67.7%).
At the three schools combined, that’s 2,432 students who have missed 10% or more of school days, which at this point in the school year means about five days, or one week, of school.
The district's average rate this school year is 52.3% as of Nov. 18. The numbers reflect both excused and unexcused absences, interim Superintendent Demario Strickland said during a recent presentation to the Board of Education.
"We definitely need the community to be aware of this, and we need to honestly take some action as a whole,” Strickland said. “It can't just be the district. It has to be the district, it has to be the home, it has to be the community. It has to be everyone.”
Another way to look at the matter of school absences is to check daily attendance rates. Again Padilla, Monroe and Edison High Schools stand out with average daily attendance ranging from 56.5% to 71.8%.
Some school board members said the numbers don’t show the nuances of each student’s circumstances and the reasons why they aren’t showing up to class.
“The media tends to portray it as if it's a negative, but it could also be that our children are sick," said board President Cynthia Elliott. “Some of our students, they go back home to Puerto Rico, and so I don't want the narrative to be that our kids are just out because they're out.”
Whatever the reasons may be, board member Isaiah Santiago said it’s on the district to take accountability and come up with a plan to remedy the situation.
“It could be the culture of the school. It could be some of their peers. But what's important about that is really being able to work on these young people, one at a time," Santiago said. “It's more than just sickness ... there's something going on in that location that's being unmet.”
By comparison, School of the Arts, School 15, and School 23 have the lowest rates of chronic absenteeism in the district and the highest attendance rates that hover above 90%.
Board member Camille Simmons said the district’s attendance department is collecting data related to the reasons students are missing school. She said there will be more details presented on the matter of chronic absenteeism and how the district plans to address it at the school board’s student equity and achievement committee meeting on Dec. 10.
