Hispanic students in the Rochester City School District missed an average of 38.2 days of school during the 2024-25 school year, more than the rate for students overall, according to a new report on chronic absenteeism in Monroe County.
The report, released recently by The Children’s Agenda, found that all students in the city school district missed an average of 35.3 days. In Monroe County’s suburban districts, Hispanic students missed an average of 13.7 days, compared to 11 days for all students.
The disparities aren’t new. Shannon Mullin, senior policy analyst for The Children’s Agenda, said Hispanic and Black students have consistently missed more school than their white peers.
“If we go back to the 2018-2019 school year, Hispanic students in RCSD missed an average of 26 days, Black students missed 23 days, and that's compared to white students missing on average 21 days,” Mullin said.
In suburban districts, Hispanic students missed an average of 10 days, Black students missed nine, and white students missed about seven, Mullin added.
Chronic absenteeism is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as missing at least 10% of school days, or approximately 18 days a year.
The issue grew into a nationwide problem during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nationally, chronically absenteeism rate reached about 31% in the 2021-22 school year before slightly decreasing to 28% the following year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. Hispanic students made up 33% of chronically absent students in 2022, according to data from the ED Data Express, an online portal created by the USDE to give the public easy access to state and district education data.
In New York, the rate of chronic absenteeism reached 35% in the 2022-23 school year. In Monroe County, the issue continues to affect students across grade levels.
During the 2024-25 school year, 24% of elementary students and 32.4% of high school students were chronically absent.
To understand why students were missing school, The Children's Agenda partnered with the Center for Teen Empowerment to survey 302 of them from the city of Rochester over two years for the report.
About 12% of the respondents identified as Latino, Latina, or Hispanic, and most of them attended a school in RCSD or charter schools.
Students were asked to identify all the reasons they missed school in the previous year.
Isabel Rosa, community and parent advocacy coordinator at The Children’s Agenda, said the reasons for absenteeism among Hispanic students are varied and can include responsibilities at home, mental health challenges, and school-related concerns.
“Things like caregiving, having to take care of family, school climate, mental health,” Rosa told WXXI News. “Are the children comfortable? Do they feel safe? Is it culturally appropriate? And transportation, and even suspensions.”
Poverty can also contribute to absenteeism by creating barriers that make regular school attendance a challenge.
Eamonn Scanlon, the organization’s director of community impact, said schools serving more economically disadvantaged communities generally experience high rates of chronic absenteeism.
“The school districts throughout Monroe County that have higher levels of economically disadvantaged households, like somebody in the household is receiving government assistance, those have generally higher rates of absenteeism,” Scanlon said.
RCSD has tried different methods throughout the years to address chronic absenteeism.
In 2017, then-Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams visited roughly 200 students who missed more than 10% of school the previous year. She told WXXI at the time that the goal of the "attendance blitz” was to encourage a strong start to the new year and to also better understand the challenges students may face getting to school.
More recently, the district introduced its Strive for Five campaign in 2025. The initiative aims to improve attendance through a community-driven, student-centered approach that engages families, builds trust, and encourages students to attend school regularly.
Hispanic and Latino students make up roughly 33% of the total student population in RCSD.
Isaiah Santiago, a commissioner on RCSD’s board of education, told WXXI the district is pursuing long-term strategies to address barriers to attendance.
Those efforts include implementing health centers in specific schools, having telehealth at each one of the schools within the next few years, and moving toward a community school model.
Community schools connect students and families with services and resources intended to address challenges that can interfere with learning and attendance.
A report by the Learning Policy Institute, which studies education policy and practice, found that community schools are effective in reducing chronic absenteeism and addressing the root problems.
Santiago said the district must continue evaluating its efforts and adjusting its approach to meet students’ needs.
“There are things in place, but obviously there comes moments when you see data like this where you have to look, you have to see what's working, what's not working, and you have to be able to pivot to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our young people to attend school, but also that we're ensuring that we're pushing the importance of our young people being in school to our community,” Santiago said.
