2023 - 24 Annual Report
Goal 1
Chronic Absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism ( missing 10 percent or more of the school year ) appears in every type of district – urban , suburban , rural , regional , traditional public schools , career technical schools , charter schools , elementary schools , middle schools , and high schools . We know that there are often valid reasons for students to be absent , but , to a troubling extent , students are missing more school now than they did prior to the pandemic . Before the pandemic , 13 percent of students statewide were chronically absent . Last year , 22 percent of students – close to 1 in 4 statewide – were chronically absent . Newton Public Schools is not immune to this trend . In all but two of our 22 schools , the chronic absenteeism rate in FY23 increased from FY19 . In many cases , it is double or triple what it was in FY19 . Asof 4 / 2 / 2024 , the district ’ s chronic absenteeism rate K - 12 is 14 . 8 %, which means that close to 15 % of the district ’ s students ( over 1 , 700 students ) have missed 10 % ormore of the school year so far . Districtwide , Fridays have the lowest attendance rate ( 92 . 7 % asof 4 / 2 / 2024 ), while Mondays have the highest attendance rate ( 94 . 7 %). Students in grade 12 have the highest rate of chronic absenteeism : 27 . 8 % of seniors this year are chronically absent ( as of 4 / 3 / 2024 ). We have asked families to commit to making daily school attendance part of the family routine again . When families make a point of getting students to school every day , they will understand that it is important for their success . NPS is committed to partnering with families to find ways to remove any barriers that may be hindering any child from coming to school every day . Our goal is to reduce the absenteeism rates moving forward and we will share more data in future years .
-9-
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator