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Winchester schools report improved attendance, step up enforcement of cell‑phone and tardy policies
Summary
District staff told the board the division’s MTSS work and new attendance‑recovery rules helped reduce chronic absenteeism in most schools while stricter enforcement of cell‑phone and punctuality rules produced a large rise in referrals at one high school.
District staff presented a midyear update on multi‑tiered systems of support (MTSS), attendance recovery and disciplinary referrals at the March 10 Winchester Public Schools work session. The presentation said most schools improved chronic‑absence measures compared with 2022–23, and that the division has started evaluating the effectiveness of tier‑2 interventions this spring.
The report framed attendance, discipline and social‑emotional supports as linked elements of MTSS. Staff said they have moved some K–6 social‑emotional curriculum to Newsela, continued PBIS school‑wide expectations, and use restorative conferences for tier‑3 cases. Attendance strategies cited included brief student check‑ins (a 2‑by‑10 program at Virginia Avenue) and individualized attendance plans developed by school teams.
Why it matters: chronic absenteeism now factors into the state accountability model. Staff told the board that elementary chronic absenteeism will count for 5 percent of the readiness index (10 percent in the first year for middle school) and that lower chronic absence increases the division’s accountability points.
Staff said the state introduced an attendance‑recovery option that lets students “make up” missed days by accruing instructional hours outside the school day (before/after school, Saturdays or summer) taught by a licensed teacher; the credit‑recovery window runs through June 30, and teachers are paid for those hours. For K–5 students the district said the state changed the conversion so three instructional hours now recover one day (up from two last year); a student may recover at most 15 days under current rules.
The district also reported a large rise in referrals at Hanley High School tied to stricter enforcement of the cell‑phone policy and a renewed push on unexcused tardies. Staff said cell‑phone referrals rose from 105 for the entire 2023–24 school year to 399 for semester 1 of 2024–25; unexcused tardy referrals rose from 39 last year to 529 in semester 1. Presenters emphasized that referral counts record each incident, not unique students, and that 88 percent of Hanley students had zero to one referral for the year.
Board members asked whether the increase in referrals reflected new enforcement rather than a rise in underlying misbehavior; staff agreed enforcement and improved tracking explain much of the spike. Members also asked about non‑school causes of absence (transportation, home issues) and were told while late buses are not counted as tardies, many drivers arrive on time and the division continues to work with families and counselors to address barriers.
Ending: staff said the district will begin formal evaluation of tier‑2 interventions such as check‑in/check‑out systems this spring, and that schools will monitor whether those strategies produce the expected reductions in referrals and chronic absence.
