Staff and experts point to data, prevention and system reforms after state chronic-absence rate falls

LESC staff told the Legislative Education Study Committee that New Mexico’s statewide chronic absenteeism rate fell to 32.8% in fiscal year 2024, a 6.4 percentage point drop from the prior year, and said the change underscores both progress and the need for system-level supports.

Jessica Hathaway, senior policy analyst for LESC, presented the updated numbers and told lawmakers that disaggregated results were not yet available. “PED is reporting for fiscal year 24 a statewide chronic absence rate of 32.8 percent,” she said, and cautioned that the statewide figure masks important variation by student group, school and grade.

Why it matters: speakers framed chronic absenteeism not only as a driver of lower proficiency but also as a symptom of deeper system health problems—ranging from student mental and physical illness to transportation, housing instability and school climate. Hathaway and others noted the state has enacted the Attendance for Success Act and appropriated $5,000,000 in recent years to support attendance initiatives, but they said funding and capacity must more closely match the interventions the law prescribes.

Outside research and district experience reinforced that point. Emily Baylard, chief executive officer of Everyday Labs, summarized randomized trials and district partnerships showing that when districts deploy evidence-based, tiered strategies and simple tools for staff, they commonly see double-digit improvements in chronic absence. “We have consistently seen a reduction of 10 to 15 percent,” Baylard said, describing the impact of targeted communications and automated identification of attendance patterns.

Baylard stressed prevention: high daily attendance averages can mask chronic absence, so schools should invest across absence tiers and intervene before students become severely chronically absent. Her organization recommended automation and easy-to-use dashboards so stretched school attendance staff can identify patterns—such as early-year risers or routine Friday absences—and coordinate follow-up instead of spending time on manual spreadsheets.

From the agency: Deputy Secretary Candace Castillo of the Public Education Department credited targeted grants and technical assistance with measurable district-level progress. She said the department used legislative appropriations to award attendance-improvement grants to seven large districts and to provide statewide reengagement services and a public campaign. “Santa Fe went from 50% to 30%,” Castillo said as an example of district-level change tied to staffing and dedicated attendance coaches.

Recommendations and next steps: presenters recommended several near-term actions the legislature and PED could take: expand PED capacity for real-time data analysis and plan review (LESC noted staff had only one statewide attendance coordinator supporting hundreds of districts), fund dedicated attendance coordinators or campus attendance interventionists, strengthen Project NOVA or other statewide data pipelines, and sustain grants targeted at districts with large student populations. LESC staff also urged clearer legislative guidance about what constitutes authentic root-cause analysis in school attendance plans.

What didn’t change: no formal votes were recorded on these items during the session. Committee members pressed for concrete budget requests from the administration and for an audit of student information systems to determine where early-warning flags and automated interventions already exist. The committee adjourned the attendance discussion with plans to receive follow-up budget and data details at a later hearing.