Legislators hear schools tie chronic absenteeism to student mental health; districts describe home visits, community schools and telehealth

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Public Schools, state and district leaders described student mental health challenges as a major contributor to chronic absenteeism and outlined a range of responses districts are using to keep students connected to school.

"We're talking about student mental health and chronic absenteeism," Chairwoman Verlina Reynolds Jackson said as she opened the session.

Why it matters: Speakers from urban, suburban and rural districts told legislators that absenteeism is not a single problem and therefore requires multiple solutions. Superintendents reported higher needs for students with anxiety and other mental‑health challenges after the pandemic, longer waits for child psychiatry, and costly out‑of‑district placements for students who cannot be served in their home districts.

Newark, Pascack Valley and other districts described systems-level steps taken to prevent and respond to absences. "We are in fact in year 5 of our historic 10 year strategic plan," said Roger Leon, superintendent of Newark Public Schools, describing data tracking and a partnership with Communities In Schools. Leon also told the committee that Newark's chronic‑absenteeism rate has been below the state average for two consecutive years.

Pascack Valley Regional Schools Superintendent Dr. Sarah Belotti emphasized school avoidance as an anxiety‑driven phenomenon. "We kind of term this in more of a terminology of school avoidance," she…