Common Ground data
Common Ground's recent attendance report.
Nearly half of high schoolers attending a West Rock environmental charter school were “chronically absent” during the first two months of the school year — an uptick that school leaders are working to address through everything from perfect-attendance recognitions to home visits and family meetings to recommended withdrawals.
That update was given in a September and October attendance report during Monday’s Common Ground Board of Directors meeting via Zoom. Common Ground High School Director Cherry Pacquette-Emmanuel provided the update.
The report focused on chronic absenteeism data that the school has collected so far for students who racked up four or more absences by the end of October — or, at least ten percent of instructional school days so far.
Pacquette-Emmanuel cautioned that, because the school year is still underway and not quite at the midway point yet, dozens of students have been deemed chronically absent if they missed a day or two in September and might have later gotten sick during flu season. This would push them past the 10 percent threshold early on in the school year.
She said she expects absenteeism numbers to decline as the number of completed instructional days increase.
Pacquette-Emmanuel’s data was pulled from state-collected data on Edsight, which shows that chronic absenteeism at Common Ground was at 48.8 percent of students by the end of October. This number is slightly higher than the 43.3 percent who were deemed chronically absent by the same time last year.
This school year, 223 students are enrolled at Common Ground.
In the student grades breakdown, Pacquette-Emmanuel reported that 47 percent of ninth graders, 50 percent of tenth graders, 54 percent of 11th graders, and 40 percent of 12th graders were chronically absent through the end of October.
In the 2018 – 19 school year, the school’s chronic absenteeism rates were significantly lower at 12.6 percent by the end of the school year. During the pandemic, chronic absenteeism rose to 53 percent in 2021 – 22. Last school year, Common Ground ended with a 24.6 percent chronic absenteeism rate. (For comparison, New Haven Public Schools’ chronic absenteeism rate last school year was 36.6. percent.)
Monday's Board of Directors Zoom meeting.
The reasons for student absences so far this year range from medical-excused absences — which the state does not exclude from its absenteeism data — to family travels to student hospitalizations for mental health-related issues, Pacquette-Emmanuel said. Approximately 11 percent of the chronic absenteeism data include excused absences.
This school year, five students have already been absent enough to hit the 10 percent mark for the entire school year. Of those five, two students have been discharged from the school. Two percent of chronically absent students have already withdrawn from the school while another two percent have pending discharges as staff work with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families and Juvenile Probation. Two percent of absences were due to frequent hospitalizations and three percent due to family traveling. Other reasons include family struggles with transportation as the school does not provide busing.
Board member Peter Ludwig asked on Monday whether the current data is standard or considered high.
Pacquette-Emmanuel said the current rates are high and in line with numbers seen statewide.
Last school year, Common Ground was able to leverage resources and supports offered by the State Department of Education to tackle the uptick in chronic absenteeism during the pandemic.
These efforts included strengthening the school’s attendance team, engaging students and families in developing solutions, using the Attendance Peer Leadership Network offered by the State Department of Education, monitoring classroom attendance numbers, following consistent and clear protocols for family communication, hiring three full-time social workers, a full-time school nurse, a student academic success manager, two full-time school culture managers, support educators, a special education team, Common Ground’s first certified school counselor, and by offering credit-bearing internships, college credit opportunities, high-interest electives, and identifying relevance plans for every course.
“This involvement made an enormous difference; for instance, student feedback led us to re-introduce daily guidance meetings in the 2023 – 24 school year,” Director of Community Engagement & Impact Joel Toleman said.
“As a result of this concerted effort, we were able to cut our chronic absenteeism rate in half to 24.6% in 2022 – 23 — still significantly above pre-pandemic levels, but matching the state average for high schools, and significantly below the rate for other urban high schools across Connecticut. We know we absolutely need to continue and strengthen this work, as we aim to bring attendance back to pre-pandemic norms.”
The school’s tier one intervention this year has included offering students recognition at school assemblies for their perfect attendance, a free ticket to the school’s Fall Dance in exchange for getting perfect attendance, and sending out attendance letters to homes and making calls to families.
Tier two supports include home visits and family meetings, and tier three includes Planning and Placement Team (PPT) meetings, outside agency involvement, and recommended withdrawals.
In addition to intervention efforts, the school is working to provide its social workers with chronic absenteeism training.