New attendance team outlines tiered plan and new record rules as district seeks to cut chronic absenteeism

Joseph "Joe" Feeney, the district’s new director of attendance, told the board on Dec. 10 that the attendance office is reorganizing to support school-based teams and to reduce chronic absenteeism by 25% by 2028.

Feeney described a team of seven attendance specialists who coach building attendance teams on best practices, home visits, community resources and data use. "We believe that our ability to support the different unique needs and systems of each school allows our framework to be flexible while still implementing best practices," he said.

The presentation defined key terms used across New York districts: chronic absenteeism (missing 10% of school days), severe chronic absenteeism (20%) and average daily attendance. Feeney reported district-average daily attendance at about 80.1% in December 2024, and noted the usual pattern of a slight drop across September–November each year. The team cited elementary-level improvements at several schools tied to tier-1 incentives (breakfast with the mayor; ice-cream and recognition events) and tier-2 outreach such as home visits and targeted re-engagement.

Feeney described operational changes intended to improve data accuracy and fair presentation of school-level attendance rates. He said regional data center rules now allow the district to set out-of-district transfer exit dates to the last day a student attended rather than the day before the new school; a new registered-never-enrolled guideline provides a limited window (up to the first 10 school days after placement) before absences are counted; and the district will create a central "83100" homeroom to move long-term no-show students off individual school rosters while retaining them in district accountability.

"A student that goes to 83100 is still factoring into our district accountability data, but it's not necessarily fair to a school for a particular student that's a no show to be carried on a school's roster for years upon end," Feeney said. He added that placement in the 83100 homeroom requires a series of interventions (letters, three home visits, phone calls) and involvement of child-protective or educational-neglect referrals as required.

Board members asked about students experiencing homelessness and information sharing with county agencies. Interim Superintendent Lesli A. Strickland said the district identifies students in transition and coordinates with Families in Transition staff and community shelter providers. Strickland said about 852 students were identified as unhoused in RCSD records at the time of the meeting and stressed the count may be incomplete. Several board members urged stronger cross‑agency data sharing and neighborhood outreach to locate students not linked to shelter systems.

Feeney’s team also described plans to expand school‑based outreach: summer outreach for school‑based health clinics, better use of return-to-sender report cards to update contact information, and a planned public-facing mobile-friendly attendance website and community outreach campaign.

Ending

The attendance office framed the new model as a mix of building-based prevention, targeted interventions and improved data rules. Board members and staff discussed next steps including clarifying how 83100 placement is used, increasing partnerships with shelters and county agencies, and incorporating the department’s outreach plans into board follow-up requests.