Trenton schools outline corrective-action plan as chronic absenteeism spikes across grades

Assistant Superintendent Hope Grant told the Trenton Board of Education on March 23 that the district’s Student Attendance Corrective Action Plan is a statutory response to rising chronic absenteeism and described what the district is doing to reverse the trend. The state defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% or more of school days; Grant said every school in the district met that threshold and that the district must implement a CAP when that happens.

Grant said district data from 2023–24 to 2024–25 showed broad increases: chronic absenteeism for Black/African American students rose from 38.9% to 43.0%; Hispanic students from 31.5% to 41.4%; students with disabilities from 36.5% to 45.2%; and notable increases by grade (for example, eighth grade rose from 43.2% to 52.2%). High-school grades showed one-year chronic rates above 50% in the 2024–25 year. She emphasized that the measure is cumulative—students who miss 18 or more days in a year count as chronically absent.

The CAP rests on a three-tiered approach: Tier 1 is universal, schoolwide strategies to make school inviting (morning welcomes, celebrations, attendance teams, robo-calls and student recognition). Tier 2 targets students moving toward the threshold (teacher outreach, PowerSchool letters, attendance officer home visits). Tier 3 is intensive: care-team meetings that identify barriers and create individualized plans and, when all district interventions fail, a statutory court-intervention process for students ages 6–16.

Grant reported that the district held 605 care-team meetings last school year; 87.3% of those students did not have an IEP, and 71.02% were not multilingual learners. Common barriers identified in care-team notes included illness (281 mentions), family responsibilities or parental illness (145), transportation or no reliable way to get to school (170), and social-emotional challenges such as anxiety and depression. Grant said some families are reluctant to engage because they fear immigration enforcement; the district has tried outreach, bilingual notices and community support connections but has seen a sharp attendance decline beginning in January 2025.

On interventions, Grant outlined operational steps: daily robo-calls for absences, teacher and parent-liaison outreach, an attendance hotline at each school, nine attendance officers and three school support managers who perform home visits and log outcomes, and coordinated referrals to city social-services partners when the barrier is non-school (housing, food insecurity, transportation). She described care-team follow-ups, iterative plans (including wake-up-call trials), and escalation to court only after documented outreach and care-team attempts.

Board members asked for specifics on the pre-court steps, bilingual communications, and whether health-related absences counted toward chronic rates. Grant confirmed families receive letters that explain the statute and that absences remain counted toward chronic rates even if excused; she said the district provides bilingual notices and attempts to document reasons in care-team notes.

Board discussion emphasized that many causes are community-level (transportation, parent work schedules, housing, mental health) and called for broader citywide partnerships and campaigns to change community norms around attendance. The district said its year-to-date trend for the current school year is moving positively but that persistent multi‑year absence among specific cohorts remains a concern.

The board did not take a new formal policy vote on court referral procedures that night; Grant said the CAP will continue to rely on prevention, early intervention and community collaboration while reserving court as a statutory and last option.

The district provided attendees with a summary of the CAP and encouraged questions and follow-up with the FACE office and student-support staff for additional data and implementation details.