Enfield presents attendance, LEAP home visits and restraint data; restorative practices credited with fewer referrals

The Enfield Board of Education received a multi-part presentation on student engagement and culture that linked attendance outreach, crisis-response training and restorative practices to measurable changes in discipline and participation.

Director of Operations Dave outlined the LEAP home-visit program — “LEAP is a voluntary home visit program,” he said — as a relationship‑based intervention tied to a competitive state grant. Staff told the board that roughly 700 students were identified as chronically absent this year and that about 168 families had been referred to LEAP so far; the district secured a grant modification to extend LEAP work through the summer and plans a summer attendance campaign beginning July 7 to reach more families.

District staff described a recent technology migration from PowerSchool to EduClimber that delayed some implementation and required validation; officials said the back-end state reporting data matched EduClimber after corrections. Dave said the district will immediately assign LEAP support to students who miss school before September 1 in the coming year and use enhanced forms and processes in the student‑attendance workflow.

Chief Pupil Services Officer Julie Carroll and PMT trainers discussed the state rules governing emergency restraint and seclusion and the district’s training and reporting practices. Derek presented incident counts: in 2024–25 the district recorded 319 emergency restraints, 301 forcible escorts and 518 seclusion incidents (1,138 total incidents; 99 unique students). Current-year counts to date were 153 emergency restraints, 201 forcible escorts and 540 seclusions (894 incidents; 86 unique students), a decline of 244 incidents and 13 unique students from last year.

The presentation emphasized compliance steps: parents are notified the day of an incident and the Connecticut State Department of Education receives incident reports within two business days; four incidents within 20 school days trigger team meetings and functional-behavior assessments.

Mr. Long and staff described the district’s implementation of restorative practices under Public Act 23-167 and presented a JFK middle-school case study. School counselors and teachers described restorative circles and peer mediation pilots; the presenters reported that 70% of students who participated in circles said they felt more connected to peers and that sixth-grade office referrals at one school declined by 44% year over year.

Board members asked detailed questions about data cutoffs, the LEAP participation rate, the number of designated seclusion rooms (staff said 14 districtwide), and crisis intervention team staffing. Officials acknowledged earlier data configuration problems during the PowerSchool→EduClimber transfer but said corrections have aligned local and state figures.

Public commenter Catherine Venture, a parent and social worker, urged the board to balance legal accountability with professional judgment and empathy in attendance enforcement, noting that “compliance and compassion are not opposing forces.”

The board did not take a formal vote on policies tied to these presentations at this time but scheduled follow-up and subcommittee work to review administrative regulations and implementation details.