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District reports steady attendance overall but highlights disparities; frequently absent students concentrated at secondary level
Summary
Lawrence Public Schools reported an average daily attendance of about 90.6% and said frequent absenteeism has decreased since post-pandemic return, but disparities persist among Black, American Indian, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students.
The Lawrence Public Schools administration presented its annual attendance equity report, showing an overall average daily attendance (ADA) of roughly 90.6% and long-term improvements at the elementary and middle levels since the district's return to full in-person learning. At the same time, the presentation flagged persistent disparities in attendance for several student groups and concentrated frequent absence among older students.
Key takeaways from the report: - Overall district ADA was reported at about 90.6% (most recent full school year reported). Elementary and middle attendance rates have shown year-over-year improvement since the pandemic return; high school attendance has been stable around the mid-80s. - The district tracks "approaching frequent" (80'89.9% attendance) and "frequently absent" (<80% attendance) students. Over four years the combined approaching/frequent absence measure decreased from about 36.8% to approximately 29.5%. - Intensive-focus students (the smallest group requiring the most intervention) were about 4% of elementary students, 7% of middle-school students and about 20% of high-school students. - Disparities: African American, American Indian, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students had lower ADA than district averages; staff flagged those groups for targeted outreach.
Interventions and practices cited: District staff described a range of tiered responses: universal communications and welcome-calls at enrollment, bilingual ParentSquare messaging, school-specific family events, daily welcome routines at secondary sites, and targeted casework for students with chronic absence. West Middle School is piloting an attendance text-response workflow to let parents reply to daily absence notices and provide immediate reason codes; other schools cited weekly check-ins and home outreach as successful tactics.
Board members asked for follow-up analyses to disaggregate excused vs. unexcused absence patterns and to identify how much lost time is attributable to extracurricular travel, open-lunch policies, transportation gaps or other systemic causes. Administration said they will return with further breakdowns and recommended interventions.
