Rochester schools present detailed attendance update as chronic absenteeism rises

Rochester Public Schools officials told the school board on Oct. 21 that 64.9% of students met the district—s definition of "consistent attendance" (attending more than 90% of enrolled days), and outlined data-cleaning steps and new interventions aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism.

The district described why the issue matters and what it is doing about it. Superintendent Kent Pickell introduced the presentation and said board members had previously made consistent attendance a central performance measure for the district's strategic work.

Angie McCandrews, a district staff member leading the attendance presentation, defined the key terms for the board: "consistent attendance is defined as a student who is present for more than 90% of the time," she said, adding that the district counts excused and unexcused absences the same for the 90% calculation. McCandrews told the board that, for Rochester, 90% of 168 instructional days equals roughly 16.8 absences per year before a student falls below the threshold.

The presentation said Rochester's 90%-or-better consistent-attendance rate for 2024-25 was 64.9% (district-calculated), and that the district sees higher rates of chronic absence among some student groups. Leaders showed side-by-side ethnicity, free-and-reduced-price eligibility, and multilingual-learner breakdowns. The presentation noted that Minnesota selected 12 districts, including Rochester, for a state attendance pilot and that the district is collaborating with the Minnesota Department of Education and peer districts to test approaches.

District staff described several technical changes intended to make the data more accurate and usable. Peter Kristofferson, the district's data-warehouse manager, built dashboards so buildings can identify students who are near or below consistent-attendance thresholds without running long reports. The district also introduced an S attendance code to exempt time students spend supervised by district staff (for example, restorative circles) from counting as an absence and has standardized elementary attendance as two half-day counts (morning/afternoon) while secondary attendance is period-based.

The board heard several operational clarifications the district has adopted to reduce coding confusion: an M code ("missed significant instruction") marks students who were present part of a class period but missed a significant portion; tardies under five minutes are treated differently from M codes; and coding cleanups were performed last December and again in June to produce a clean baseline for 2024-25.

Officials described tiered interventions. For universal outreach they—ve begun monthly text-message "nudges" and newsletters using social-norm theory to remind families about attendance norms. For targeted supports the district is expanding building dashboards and cross-department collaboration to reach families earlier. For higher-touch interventions, the district is piloting programs such as a Freshman on Track initiative in four high schools (Century, John Marshall, Mayo and the ALC) to combine attendance, behavior and grades as early warning indicators, and a partnership pilot with 3 Rivers Restorative Justice at Kellogg (the presentation named it as a pilot sometimes referred to as Uplift) that had 11 referrals and nine families opted in for a nine-week intervention.

Kate Morrow, the district's attendance insurance coordinator, is participating in the state advisory committee to push for consistent coding and clearer statewide guidance, McCandrews said. Board members pressed staff on distinctions among excused, unexcused, M-code and S-code entries and on when a student is administratively dropped after 15 consecutive calendar days of nonattendance; staff said the 15-day drop is a separate legal/administrative action that occurs regardless of whether absences were excused.

Board members and staff emphasized that absenteeism interacts with mental-health needs, family responsibilities, and student engagement. McCandrews said local patterns differ from some other districts: Rochester sees fewer transportation-related absences and more reasons tied to mental health, family care duties and post-pandemic stamina or engagement issues. The presentation cited national and state research linking attendance below 90% to lower proficiency and graduation rates and framed the district—s work as early intervention plus systems changes to reduce coding confusion.

District leaders told the board they will keep refining dashboards and communication and will return with policy and handbook alignments as necessary. The board did not take formal action on the presentation but set follow-up monitoring and asked staff to return with progress updates.