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Toms River credits attendance campaign, tiered supports for drops in chronic absenteeism and behavior incidents
Summary
Administrators told the board that a districtwide attendance campaign, tiered behavioral supports and professional-development initiatives coincided with measurable declines in chronic absenteeism and several behavior categories; the district reported growth in on-grade-level measures as well.
District administrators presented a yearlong strategy on May 23 that tied a sustained attendance campaign, tiered behavior interventions and school-level professional development to measurable student gains this school year.
The presentation detailed targeted, districtwide communications (postcards, letters and social-media campaigns), incentives and school-based committees that tracked absences and intervened early. Officials said kindergarten chronic absenteeism fell by roughly 11–12 percentage points year over year and that the district’s measured on-grade-level proficiency rose from about 48% to 53% on their internal metric.
Administrators linked behavioral improvements to tiered supports, mentoring and a transitional behavior classroom pilot for kindergarten and first grade. The district reported reductions including about a 22.5% drop in aggressive behavior, a 16% drop in disruptive behavior, a roughly 23% drop in confirmed harassment/intimidation/bullying (HIB) incidents and a 2.5% reduction in suspensions.
District leaders emphasized process and staff development. “We truly believe that we can grow students from wherever they come to us and move them forward,” a district presenter said, characterizing the work as the product of sustained professional development, leadership capacity-building and monthly data review.
What comes next: Administrators said they will continue the attendance campaign, expand a planned kindness campaign and refine middle-school enrichment periods to provide flexible support for struggling and advanced learners. They said state testing (NJSLA) results will be used to validate local diagnostic gains when available.
Context and limits: Presenters cautioned that some measures are based on local diagnostics (i-Ready, NJGPA) and that NJSLA will be the formal state metric; administrators said they expect similar gains but are awaiting final state data.
