Norwalk schools report drop in chronic absenteeism after ‘Stay in the Game’ campaign

Norwalk City School District officials told the board on Sept. 10 that a districtwide attendance campaign tied to the “Stay in the Game” playbook helped reduce the district’s chronic absenteeism rate from 20.1% to 18.3% in the most recent reporting year. Sandy Stewart and Jen Gerber, who presented the plan to the board, said the district adopted the playbook’s data-driven approach, teacher reports and incentive activities to focus effort across all six district buildings.

The district framed the campaign around chronic absenteeism — defined in the presentation as missing days that add up to learning loss regardless of whether absences are excused — and said the state-backed Stay in the Game program supplies a playbook, packaged incentives and quarterly reporting requirements the district now uses to measure progress. Stewart and Gerber told the board the district exceeded the state improvement goal: the state’s improvement target was a 3% reduction, and the district recorded a 9% improvement under the metric the presenter cited.

Stewart…