PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The district has had improvement in absences this year versus last year's overall attendance rate, Deputy Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa said during last week's school committee meeting. 

 

Morningside Community and Stearns Elementary had some stability from last year as there was not much fluctuation in the numbers. 

 

Both Crosby Academy and Eagle Academy had significant gains in attendance rates from last year, said Mendonsa, crediting a work on building a greater sense of belonging and community.

 

Crosby Academy’s attendance rate increased to 91.8 percent from 86.4 percent last year and Eagle Academy's rate increased to 84.4 percent from 72.5 percent.

 

COVID-19 absences are still a factor that need to considered, Mendonsa said.

 

September 2022 had one of the district's highest COVID-19 numbers this school year, causing more than 1,000 absences. The district's overall total through January 2023 for COVID-19 absences is 2,193. 

 

Mendonsa is not sure why the numbers have decreased since September but noted it could be because of people are choosing not to test or questioning whether it is the novel coronavirus or the flu since the symptoms are similar. 

 

Although the district has both excused and unexcused absences, regardless of the type of absence, it still affects the district's attendance data because the state marks it as a missed day of learning. 

 

An excused absence occurs when the caregiver or medical professional provides information as to why the student is unable to attend school.

 

If a student has a certain number of unexcused absences then it will start to affect their academic credit.

 

An internal suspension does not count against the district in terms of attendance but external suspensions do.  

 

The district has about 1,400 suspension days across the district, but Mendonsa did not specify the type of suspension. 

 

There are a variety of things the district needs to consider to continue to improve attendance rates, she said. 

 

The schools should be continuing to build community connections to provide more therapeutic services to students. In addition, the district should consider conducting more research into what leads to chronic absences -- whether it is transportation, feeling of belonging, language barriers, or other factors. 

 

The schools should consider an internal review of its external suspensions, Mendonsa said. The district's code of conduct does focus on utilizing restorative practices.

 

"There's also new state laws around external suspensions and so that will help guide us through this work," she said. "So I really see the external suspension rates decreasing for us and for many schools around the commonwealth."

 

The attendance data allows family engagement and attendance coordinators to identify the students who are not attending school regularly and reaching out to families to offer support. 

 

They collaborate with the teachers, administrators, school counselors, school adjustment counselors, the instructional accountability coordinators, and schedule home visits to help problem solve. 

 

"They're working with school counselors and school adjustment counselors to help maybe change schedules if needed. Think about transitions in between classes, if a student gets really anxious with crowds and hallways, they can develop plans," Mendonsa said. 

 

"It’s like an onion, peeling away the layers to get to the root cause of why a student may be struggling to come to school, or maybe struggling to be successful in school."

 

They also discuss alternative education options with the parents and students, which is something that is beginning to happen in the Student Success Teams and coming to the district level. 

 

The FEAC has also been developing incentive plans for students to improve attendance and build engagement by having "fun" activities tied to school such as running attendance boosters, holding lunch groups, and hosting after school clubs. 

 

Last year there was a concern regarding how many of the calls and emails the caregivers are receiving that the school is sending out when absent. 

 

This year the district has adjusted the way that we track absent communication between the caregivers and the school by also tracking whether they're receiving a return communication or if they're getting in contact the first try. 

 

This year a little less than 3000 calls and emails have been attempted so far across our schools with 81 percent having had contact made with a response. 

 

"The [family engagement attendance coordinators] have been a part of 213 conferences, they've conducted 172 home visits, they've participated and or designed 67 engagement activities for families and have also made 415 community contacts that might be with the Brien Center, Elizabeth Freeman Center, 18 Degrees, just for resources and or even therapeutic services that are offered in our city," Mendonsa said. 

 

The coordinators are in their second year with the district and work to identify chronically absent students and support the caregivers who may need additional assistance getting their kids to school.

 

"I am definitely a parent who every once in a while has experienced my child not wanting to go to school. And as they get a little bit older, it's a little bit harder to lift them up, especially when they're four or five inches taller than you," Mendonsa said. 

 

"The family engagement attendance coordinators are really wonderful in meeting with families helping support them, or even connect them to an outside agency for some additional resources."

 

They are also members of the student support teams, providing guidance in data and attendance because a student may not be performing well academically because of how many classes they missed. 

 

In addition to that, they conduct home visits to speak with the student to determine what is not working for them, what adjustments the school can make, and develop a plan together. 

 

The district has to decide the next steps it wants to take in regard to the role of the coordinators. Schools that don't have coordinators, or FEAC, do have staff that provide some support but often have other priorities. 

 

The dean, vice principal, family engagement and attendance coordinators, school counselors, school adjustment counselors, and principal all play a role. For instance, they may meet weekly with students or assign someone to to welcome chronically absent students at the beginning of the day and then review how the day went.

 

The school counselors are often the point person for students in the schools, working more specifically around the academics and the social-emotional learning support services, whether that is another counselor, or an outside therapist. 

 

They set goals with students and attend meetings with students and caregivers. School adjustment counselor may also work with chronically absent students.