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Norwalk schools report attendance drop among multilingual learners; behavior incidents decline but disparities persist
Summary
District staff reported chronic absenteeism at 18.9% versus the state 17.1%, highlighted a post–Jan. 20 drop in multilingual learner attendance, and said overall student incidents are down 12% though Black students remain more likely to be suspended.
Norwalk Public Schools officials on Tuesday told the Board of Education that districtwide chronic absenteeism stood at about 18.9%—close to but above the state rate of 17.1%—and that multilingual learners (MLL) have experienced a recent, sizable decline in average daily attendance.
Sandy Fayouis (presenter name in transcript: Ms. Fayouis) said the district began tracking attendance before and after Jan. 20 and found MLL average daily attendance fell about five percentage points after that date. She said MLL students who receive language services currently show a 25.6% chronic-absence rate compared with 16.8% for non-MLL students. Students who receive specialized-learning services are at 25.2% versus 17.5% for peers who do not receive such services.
Fayouis and Superintendent Dr. Alexandra Estrella told the board the district sees these attendance shifts as connected to heightened immigration concerns circulating in the community; staff said some families reported fear about immigration status and that spikes on social media corresponded to attendance drops the following day. The district has begun monitoring the pattern closely but noted the post–Jan. 20 period covers only a few weeks of data.
Board members heard other attendance detail: younger grades and middle schools generally show better attendance than high school grades, and kindergarten historically shows higher absenteeism that staff attribute to misconceptions about school-start age and lingering pre-pandemic patterns. The presentation highlighted improvements at several high schools: P-TECH reduced chronic absenteeism from 21.5% to 15.3% year to date, and another high school (Brian McMahon) reported a 5-percentage-point reduction tied to targeted equity work and affinity groups.
On student behavior, staff reported a 12% reduction in incidents year to date and said the district’s alternate suspension site—where suspended students receive instruction—has helped lower subjective-suspension categories such as insubordination. Incidents among Black students have declined in number by 16%, Fayouis said, but Black students remain more likely to be suspended than peers. Incidents for students receiving specialized services have fallen by 19%.
Staff also noted a data-reporting issue: differences in how schools code fights, battery and physical altercations can affect the district’s state-reported suspension numbers. Fayouis said some schools choose codes based on the expected number of suspension days, and that adjusting coding practice could materially change comparisons with other urban districts.
Ending: Staff said the district will continue monitoring attendance trends, retraining schools on incident coding as needed, and pursue community outreach and interventions to support at-risk student groups.
