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Lawrence Public Schools reports drop in chronic absenteeism, committee presses for school-level budget clarity
Summary
District presenters told the School Committee that chronic absenteeism fell from roughly 23.3% to 20.0%, representing about 2,680 students, and Lawrence High maintained daily attendance above 90%. Members pressed staff about how Family Resource Center funding, attendance officers and interpreter positions are treated in the budget.
Marianella de la Cruz, a partnership director at the Family Resource Center, told the Lawrence School Committee that the district has seen measurable improvements in student attendance this year. “Chronic absenteeism [is] decreasing from 23.3 to 20,” she said, adding that the district’s severe-chronic measure also fell. She noted the totals represent roughly 2,680 students.
Headmaster Victor Karavajjo said Lawrence High School has sustained daily attendance above 90% for more than two years and that average absences fell from about 16.1 days to roughly 10.2 days this year. He credited coordinated teams — attendance officers, counselors, deans and community partners — and work with employers that reduced students’ need to miss class for paid work.
Committee members welcomed the trend but pressed district leaders for more detail about where support is funded and how resources will be preserved. Clerk Jonathan Guzman asked whether the attendance figures and the student counts were calculated on the same population; staff confirmed the 2,680 figure is the basis for the district percentage. Guzman also sought the budget line for the Family Resource Center and whether the district preserved attendance officers’ funding as positions were reorganized in the proposed 2026–27 budget.
Superintendent Carrero and other staff explained that attendance officers are assigned by zone and paid from the FRC budget; some positions created with Student Opportunity Act (SOA) dollars had duplicated school-level roles, and the district shifted certain resources from centralized SOA-funded positions to school-based staffing to reduce duplication. Staff also said interpreter services for multilingual families are now required to be neutral and certified under state guidance, which moved some work from parent liaisons into a district-level interpretation function.
Committee members requested a list of schools still below 90–95% attendance and a clearer, school-by-school accounting of which positions remain funded, which were reorganized and what the net change is for each school. Superintendent and HR staff agreed to provide the requested breakdown and to bring clearer budget line definitions to the committee.
Next steps: the committee asked staff to return with school-level attendance rates, the FRC budget line items and a list of positions that moved between FRC and school staffing so members can assess whether resources match need.
