Moreno Valley board hears detailed MTSS plan as district works to lower chronic absenteeism
Summary
District leaders presented data showing chronic absenteeism declined from about 24% last year to roughly 21% so far this year but flagged persistent gaps for African American students, English learners and students with disabilities. School leaders described home visits, incentives and expanded supports as next steps.
The Moreno Valley Unified School District on Nov. 14 received a multi-tiered systems-of-support (MTSS) update that framed chronic absenteeism as an equity issue and outlined school-level interventions aimed at getting students back into classrooms.
Superintendent Rubacaba introduced the MTSS presentation and said schools had made measurable gains but still needed to focus on particular student groups. ‘‘We ended our chronic absenteeism rate at about 24 percent. To date this year, we're right around 21,’’ the superintendent said, noting one in five students miss more than 10% of the school year.
Mister Peoples and principals from Bear Valley, Box Springs, Creekside and Seneca Elementary presented a claim–evidence–reasoning analysis showing site-level improvements and trouble spots. The presenters reported Bear Valley reduced overall chronic absenteeism by about 5 percentage points, Box Springs by 4 points (with an 11.6-point decline for African American students in one measure), Creekside by 4.7 points and Seneca by 0.6 points. They also flagged increases in some subgroups: at Seneca EL chronic absenteeism rose about 9% and students with disabilities at multiple sites showed increases.
School leaders described concrete actions: routine home visits and parent outreach, incentives such as attendance ‘‘belts’’ and monthly recognition, Saturday Innovation Camps and strengthened independent-study (ISP) processes to recapture missed instruction. Bear Valley said it moved attendance messaging into ParentSquare so families can see weekly and monthly attendance celebrations; Creekside emphasized social-skills videos and increased counseling for African American students; Seneca reported 26 household visits so far this year and showed early attendance improvements for many students after home visits.
Public commenter James Clabaughn had urged the board to ‘‘look more critically into why children are being suspended, why children do not wanna come to school,’’ and board members repeatedly returned to that theme in questioning. Trustee questions centered on what parents tell principals during home visits and whether parents have access to ParentSquare and district resources; principals said many parents were surprised by home visits and that issues ranged from illness and transportation to lack of awareness about start times.
District next steps include repeating listening sessions with chronically absent students, expanding progress monitoring and PLC work, continuing trauma-informed and unconscious-bias training for staff, and exploring more dedicated staff for home visits. The board asked staff to return with detailed job descriptions, cost estimates and a plan for scaling home visits and student-facing incentives.
The presentation concluded with the district agreeing to bring back specific proposals and metrics for monthly or quarterly trend tracking so the board can see whether the interventions narrow subgroup gaps.
