Stamford officials say district chronic absenteeism near 22.8% and outline 'Strive for 5' goal

Stamford School District officials presented end-of-year attendance and climate data Tuesday, reporting that the district’s chronic absenteeism rate was roughly 22.8% for 2023–24 and that rates are higher among students the state classifies as high-need.

"The exact number I believe is is 22.8 percent is I think where we fall," said Scott Clayton, the district director of systems and student data, while summarizing state and district comparisons. Clayton noted the state defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of the school year for any reason and cautioned that a small group of students can drive incident totals in some schools.

Board members pressed staff on metric choices and reporting detail. A member asked whether Average Daily Attendance (ADA) was broken down by school; Clayton said he would run ADA-by-school comparisons and provide those figures in a follow-up. Staff declined to equate one metric with the other, saying ADA and chronic-absence rates answer different questions.

The district also previewed a new attendance-focused objective, "Strive for 5," intended to increase the share of students who miss five or fewer days in an academic year. "And so I think the goal is that we would really like to see the majority of our kids miss 5 or less days of school," a district administrator said during the meeting. Staff said they will examine which extracurricular or community programs correlate with lower absence rates and work to scale those partnerships.

Officials emphasized non-punitive interventions and community partnerships (family advocates, LEAP, Stamford Youth Services) as central to improving attendance. Clayton and other staff said they will produce additional disaggregated reports — including ADA comparisons — at the board's request.