At the first Board of Education (BOE) meeting of 2024, accountability was on the agenda – specifically, Next Generation Accountability reporting. According to the state, the Next Generation Accountability System is “a broad set of 12 indicators that help tell the story of how well a school is preparing its students for success in college, careers, and life.” Dr. Laura Norbut, Stafford’s Chief Academic Officer, reported that district students out-performed the state average in ELA, math, and science and every category but physical fitness. In fact, Stafford was at the top of its District Reference Group (DRG) and out-performed some of the surrounding towns. In most ways, that’s a point of pride for the school system. However, there is one area of concern: absenteeism.
All the indicators show that Stafford’s high-needs population – which consists of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, require special education services, or are English language learners – is keeping up with the larger student population. Still, this group is over-represented when it comes to chronic absenteeism.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as a student who has missed 10% or more of days in school. Over the course of 180 school days, that means a student would have to miss at least 18 days to be considered chronically absent. Here are the current rates of chronic absenteeism at each of Stafford’s schools:
West Stafford School (WSS) – 27.5%
Stafford Elementary School (SES) – 24.4%
Stafford Middle School (SMS) – 33.2%
Stafford High School (SHS) – 19.1%
The high-needs population is over-represented among this group of students. For instance, at WSS, 60% of the chronically absent students are high needs. At the other end of the schooling spectrum is SHS, where 73.2% of the chronically absent students are considered high needs.
To address the problem, Stafford is implementing a committee to dive deeper into the issue. For some students, illness may be at the heart of absences – especially given a COVID-19 resurgence accompanied by RSV and the flu – though Superintendent Steven A. Moccio said, “I don’t think COVID is the reason we’re at 26.4%,” the district average. The committee will dive deeper into the data to understand more about which students are not only meeting but exceeding the definition of chronically absent, why, and how best to fix it.
Moccio said the schools would work more closely with Stafford Youth Services, where families often reach out for help with students who refuse to go to school. In the past, one of the only recourses the schools had was to file an educational neglect report with the state Department of Children and Family Services, where the complaints were often dismissed. Now, the schools are trying to be more active in getting students back to school before reaching out to the state. That being said, absenteeism is a statewide problem, and as such, the state is launching its own program to try and address the issue. Those resources may be sorely needed because, as Dr. Norbut pointed out, budget cuts impact the kinds of interventions possible. She also pointed out that expecting to stay at the top of the DRG in other categories may not be “realistic to continue to expect…given the budget cuts.”
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