Toms River schools report lower chronic absenteeism, strong midyear test growth; Kaplan pilot for real‑estate licensing announced

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — The Toms River Regional School District presented midyear attendance and assessment data Feb. 18, reporting notable drops in chronic absenteeism at the elementary level and midyear academic gains while announcing a career‑education pilot for high‑school students.

At a curriculum committee meeting, district staff said chronic absenteeism — defined in their presentation as students missing roughly 10% or more of the school year — has decreased across primary grades. A slide comparing 2022–23 with the 2025–26 midyear showed kindergarten chronic absenteeism falling from about 38% to roughly 21% at the time of the report. “We’ve done a tremendous amount of work with our primary level students and getting our kindergarten students to school,” a presenter said, noting school‑level attendance committees and targeted outreach to families.

The board was reminded that New Jersey requires schools with chronic absenteeism above 10% to prepare corrective action plans; staff said each school completes its own corrective action plan and that the district’s attendance committees investigate individual chronically absent students to identify interventions. Board members pressed staff on how the midyear figure is calculated; staff explained the midyear percentage projects toward year‑end measures (for example, roughly nine absences by midyear can project toward the 18‑day annual threshold).

On academic diagnostics, the district reported I‑Ready math and reading results that showed most grades meeting national midyear benchmarks for on‑track growth (the presentation cited 52% as a common midyear benchmark for math and 55% for reading). At the high‑school level, district staff said grade‑level growth measures show students averaging the equivalent of more than a half year’s growth in several courses: “Our grade nine students made 103 points of growth on average,” a presenter said, explaining that 100 points represents one year’s worth of growth in the diagnostic’s scale.

Special‑education staff and curriculum leaders said trends on diagnostics were similar for many students with disabilities and outlined targeted strategies for the remainder of the year. For ELA, the district said it will emphasize Tier‑2 vocabulary and morphological instruction (prefixes, roots, suffixes) to support comprehension. In math, teams will focus on specific domains by grade — for example, algebraic thinking and geometry at secondary levels — and the district described small‑group interventions for students multiple grade levels behind.

The curriculum team also announced a pilot partnership with Kaplan to offer a New Jersey real‑estate pre‑licensing course at High School South. Staff said Kaplan will provide an asynchronous 75‑hour course at a 50% discount to participating students; the district listed the student cost at $164.50, with up to six months to complete the course and a pathway to sit for the state licensing exam once a student turns 18.

Board members asked whether the district correlates I‑Ready projections with NJSLA results; staff said midyear I‑Ready projections closely align with end‑of‑year NJSLA score reports. Members also asked about use of artificial intelligence during online diagnostics; staff said AI‑enabled features and external photo‑tools are disabled for diagnostics, and access is restricted to the school day to limit inappropriate assistance.

The curriculum meeting concluded after a brief public Q&A in which staff reiterated that corrective action plans are school based and described how attendance teams follow up with individual families. The district said it will continue monitoring state aid timing — expected after the governor’s March 10 budget address — as it moves toward tentative budget deadlines.