City schools see drop in chronic absenteeism
BRIDGEPORT — At the Geraldine W. Johnson School in Bridgeport, about a third of the students were repeatedly not showing up for class.
It was a trend seen district- wide — with some schools seeing chronic absenteeism rates upward of 50 percent — as the pandemic shifted learning online and took kids out of the classroom.
The surge was staggering for the neighborhood school, though, which serves approximately 800 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. Before the pandemic closed school buildings last spring, Principal Luisa Wolf said just 9 percent of students were chronically absent.
So teachers and administrators banded together to see what they could do. The school opened up full- time, in- person learning to students with spotty attendance; assigned educators to certain students to form relationships, and sent home letters to families showing how their attendance compared with class averages.
Two second- grade teachers, who were distributing materials for a class project on erosion, visited students at their homes. School
staff raffled off a Nintendo Switch to students with good attendance.
“Any absence is a day missed of learning,” said Wolf, noting it’s a blanket loss extending beyond math and reading.
“If students are not in school, we can’t determine how to help them,” she said. “And when they come to school inconsistently, they don’t form those relationships with teachers and friends and classmates that help in the process of becoming a well- rounded individual.”
But Johnson School might be turning a corner. Last month, the share of students chronically missing school decreased to 27 percent, or from 235 to 200 students. Kids are considered chronically absent if they miss 10 percent or more of available school days.
These breakthroughs at Johnson School reflect signs of a district- wide recovery. About 30 percent of students in Bridgeport Public Schools — 5,509 children — were chronically absent in March, compared with 35 percent the month prior.
And though the share of students with poor attendance is still towering, it’s much improved since the height of school closures: Half of Bridgeport students didn’t attend class regularly during remote learning, compared with about 20 percent who were chronically absent before buildings closed.
Statewide, about a fifth of students were chronically absent this pandemic winter.
“We need to get kids into school and they need to be attending regularly if we’re going to have any success in educating them,” said Superintendent Michael Testani.
All absences contribute to chronic absenteeism tallies, including those excused. Testani said even if students can explain the absences, they’re still missing out on “invaluable instruction,” and educators need to track that loss.
Students who miss 19 days of school ( 10 percent of total days in a school year) remain on the district’s chronic absenteeism list for the rest of the academic year.
“There is a lot of research about student achievement tied to chronic absences,” said Carli Rocha- Reaes, Bridgeport’s coordinator of school counseling and parent partnerships. “As a district, we want to be able to identify students that are chronically absent and put interventions in place to support their academic success and their social and emotional well- being.”
Rocha- Reaes sits on a district- wide attendance committee that’s met in person at City Hall every two weeks throughout much of the pandemic.
At Blackham School, a large elementary school with upwards of 1,000 children to keep track of, more than a third of students were still chronically absent in February, data show.
By the next month, a substantial collaborative effort between school staff, families and the broader Bridgeport community brought that number down to 27 percent.
Michele Maggiore, a school counselor at Blackham, was at the forefront of the endeavor as one of educators’ and parents’ first points of contact.
“It’s looked like more phone calls, more meetings, more referrals to support families,” she said. “The volume of everything has been increased this year because of the pandemic.”
As the North End school passed the one- year mark since shuttering for the pandemic, Maggiore said she’s glad to see her team’s efforts trickle down to the children.
“It’s just a relief,” she said. “Thinking about our students, we want to make sure they’re getting the education that they need and they deserve.”
Lower rates of chronic absences spanned grade levels last month, with an overall drop of 5 percentage points among elementary schools and 3 percentage points among high schools.
While eight elementary schools saw more than half of students chronically absent in February, just Waltersville School and Wilbur Cross School still passed that threshold last month.
Bassick High School, the only high school in February with more than half of its students chronically absent, saw 5 percent of its students shed their chronically absent designations last month.
The school recently added advisory periods to help students form meaningful connections with at least one adult in the building. Principal Joseph Raiola said advisors serve as “first lines” of intervention if advisees persistently miss school.
Likewise at Bridgeport Military Academy, where high schoolers explore careers in public safety, the principals, teachers, counselors, social workers and psychologists focused on relationships with students to bring them back to school.
“It was all hands on deck,” said Ca'Tisha Howard, a guidance counselor at the school. “This was not just going to fall on counselors.”
From February to March, Bridgeport Military Academy saw 11 of the nearly 300 students fall off the chronic absenteeism list as they attended more school days.
“I plead and I beg ( for students to come back), but it gets the job done,” said Howard. “As long as I can see that child walk through those doors, I’m golden. And I’m at the door waiting.”