Senate committee hears progress reports from four districts and study group on student attendance pilot

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Senate Education Finance Committee on Jan. 28 heard progress reports from four school districts and a legislative study group about a statewide student attendance pilot created to reduce chronic absenteeism.

Committee members heard how districts used pilot funding to standardize attendance coding, create attendance teams and test outreach strategies such as text messaging in multiple languages, home visits and mentor programs.

The Minnesota Department of Education-funded pilot convened 12 districts in July 2024 to examine local attendance definitions and practices, a preliminary step many witnesses said is necessary before setting statewide targets. Colleen Cable, director of student retention and recovery for Minneapolis Public Schools, said the district participated in the pilot and joined monthly meetings to compare data, codes and responses to chronic absenteeism. "Minneapolis is very excited to be 1 of the attendance, pilot districts," Cable said.

Columbia Heights Public Schools assistant superintendent Bondo Nyemwe told the committee the district has a single goal for the pilot: raise the share of students who attend consistently from about 68% pre‑pandemic (71% last year) toward an 80% target by 2026. Columbia Heights used pilot funds to create school‑level attendance teams, hire Promise Fellows through AmeriCorps partnerships, send quarterly paper postcards to families for students with five or more absences and plan a parent health line to help guardians decide whether a child should stay home. Nyemwe said the district is emphasizing "educate, communicate and humanize" as a framework for outreach and interventions.

Chisholm Schools used funding to hire a dedicated attendance coordinator and to require biweekly attendance meetings at each of the district's three buildings. Superintendent Ryan Morrison said Chisholm, a district of roughly 630 students, is working to correct inconsistent coding, run daily accuracy checks and link attendance reviews to multi‑tiered systems of support (MTSS). Morrison reported modest gains in overall attendance for the first semester: one elementary site rose to about 92% and the high school increased from roughly 89% to about 91% so far this year. He also noted that the consistent‑attendance metric — percent of students attending 90% or more of days — had risen from about 52% two years ago to roughly 68% last year in his district.

Rochester Public Schools director of student engagement Angie McAndrews told lawmakers the district focused the pilot on system changes: recoding inconsistent attendance categories, building a real‑time attendance dashboard and creating standards for attendance teams that include social workers and counselors. Rochester's dashboard categorizes students into bands (96–100%, 91–95%, 81–90% and under 80%) to target early interventions; McAndrews said the district prioritized system fixes to sustain work after the three‑year pilot funding ends and planned youth‑led focus groups through a Youth Participatory Action Research effort to lift student voice on why peers miss school.

Witnesses across districts reported similar obstacles: inconsistent coding of partial‑day absences, varying practices between elementary and secondary schools, and a mix of legitimate medical absences and avoidable absences tied to sleep deprivation, transportation barriers or disengagement. Multiple presenters said early, personalized outreach and addressing root causes were more effective than relying primarily on formal truancy referrals.

Nick Nigro, a nonpartisan analyst for the Legislative Coordinating Commission who staffed the Student Attendance and Truancy Study Group, summarized the group's eight broad recommendations for legislators. Those recommendations included: creating consistent definitions of absence, improving coordination among state and local agencies, exploring credit for cultural or tribal activities that pull students from school for traditional practices, expanding timely attendance data reported by the Department of Education, clarifying data‑sharing rules between districts and counties, considering legislative support for staff roles focused on attendance, examining transportation barriers, and promoting community engagement around the value of attendance.

Committee members pressed testifiers on specific coding rules: several districts said elementary attendance is often recorded AM/PM while high schools commonly count by class period (for example, two missed periods might equal a half‑day absence). Minnesota attendees repeatedly cited the "15‑day drop" practice — where districts may withdraw students after 15 consecutive absences — as a policy that can have unintended consequences and one that pilot districts are watching closely while developing internal outreach.

Lawmakers also asked about the most common causes of absenteeism. District officials repeatedly named illness as the top officially coded cause for excused absences; when staff interviewed students directly, they identified sleep deprivation, social‑emotional disengagement and unaddressed mental health needs as frequent contributors to avoidable absences. Rochester officials said student interviews tend to reveal reasons such as being "unmotivated," staying up late online, or feeling disconnected from school — factors that do not always appear in attendance codes.

Districts said pilot funds have paid for staff stipends, home‑school liaisons, Promise Fellows, multilingual texting platforms and attendance marketing materials. Several witnesses emphasized that investments in staff and systems — rather than short‑term punitive measures — were central to early positive results.

The committee did not take a final vote on policy changes Wednesday but heard that pilot districts plan to continue work on coding consistency, real‑time dashboards and family outreach to refine interventions and produce comparable data for the state.

Looking ahead, Nigro said the study group's next steps include encouraging MDE and partner agencies to share promising local practices and to consider statutory changes for clearer definitions and data sharing. Committee chair Senator Kunish thanked district staff and the study group, and said the committee would continue to monitor pilot outcomes as the legislature considers possible statutory clarifications.