York County reports improved attendance metrics, outlines interventions for chronic absenteeism

Dr. Aaron Butler, director of student services, gave the board a first-semester update on student attendance on Feb. 9, saying the division's live dashboard shows unexcused absences at 23.13% for the year-to-date, down from 28.13% at the comparable point last year.

Butler explained VDOE reporting definitions: chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of instructional days (including excused and unexcused absences) and truancy is defined as accruing five or more unexcused absences. He also described Virginia's flexible instructional time recovery policy, which allows eligible students to recover up to 15 days through licensed, in-person instructional sessions of at least three hours.

"At the end of the first semester, 23.13 percent of students had unexcused absences this year," Butler said, noting that monthly attendance and overall daily attendance metrics have also improved compared with the prior year.

Butler outlined interventions: targeted professional development, monthly data reviews by associate directors and instruction staff, check-and-connect coaches for pilot schools, and four division-level coaches who support site-based student connection coaches. The division is using the federally recognized check-and-connect model to address not just attendance but the whole student, including academic and behavioral considerations.

He noted attendance peaks around holiday periods (noting spikes before Thanksgiving and winter break) and emphasized the individualized, case-by-case approach for students with complex needs such as homelessness, chronic illness or military family separations. Butler said medically approved homebound instruction is coded differently so those students do not count toward chronic absenteeism measures.

Board members asked whether elevated chronic absenteeism could affect state school-performance framework ratings and the district's funding; Butler said absenteeism does feed into the framework and can affect ratings but primary state funding is tied to average daily membership (ADM) and that some funding streams tied to remediation or at-risk programs are separate.

Butler said the division will continue monthly updates and work with VDOE coaches based at William & Mary and VCU for evidence-based practices. He offered to provide further breakdowns correlating chronic absence status with academic outcomes if the board wanted more disaggregated data for targeted planning.

The board thanked Butler for the update and asked staff to return with additional student-level analyses and recommended next steps for targeted interventions.