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District reports high chronic absenteeism, outlines outreach and home-visit plans
Summary
Erin Lesser reported semester 1 chronic-absence data to the board: roughly 38.66% overall with 39% identified as chronically absent, kindergarten around 41%, and the Career & Technical Center at about 55%. She described attendance teams, home visits, incentives and plans for cohort training to reduce absences.
Erin Lesser, director of child nutrition and student services, presented semester 1 chronic-absence data and described district strategies aimed at restoring attendance. "The current chronic absenteeism as of today, which stands at technically, like, 38.66, I think, is where we're at today," Lesser said. She added that 24 percent of students had no attendance issues, 37 percent were in a "needs attention" band, and 39 percent met the district threshold for chronic absence.
Lesser gave a grade-level breakdown (kindergarten about 41 percent, secondary grades in the 40s) and said the Career & Technical Center (CTC) showed the highest chronic-absence rate at about 55 percent. She described interventions including school attendance teams, data-driven principal meetings, home visits conducted with community-school facilitators (sometimes accompanied by Deputy Pertit), targeted incentives like monthly recognition and attendance competitions, and use of community-school funds to supply necessities such as electric blankets for families without heat. Lesser also said the district would pursue cohort training and try to bring state facilitator Jessica Sprigg to speed up local staff training.
