Emily Hays Photos
New Haven Public Schools comes knocking.
Gemma Joseph-Lumpkin and Kermit Carolina were ready to give an Augusta Lewis Troup School student everything he needed to connect with his remote classes.
There was just one problem. They had to find him.
The two outreach administrators had that experience over and over on Tuesday as they walked from house to house in the Dwight neighborhood to find students who had not logged into their classes.
“These kids are ghosts right now. But trust me, we will not give up,” Joseph-Lumpkin said.
YFCE Chief Gemma Joseph-Lumpkin: We do not give up on ghosts.
New Haven Public Schools student attendance has dropped dramatically since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. New state data shows that New Haven students attended roughly 93 percent of school days last year prior to the pandemic.
This fall, that attendance rate dropped to 86 percent for all students and to 84 percent for students with disabilities, low-income students and English learners. It’s one of the largest drops in attendance among high-needs students in Connecticut.
Joseph-Lumpkin leads the department responsible for bringing these absent students back into the fold. As chief of youth, family and community engagement (YFCE), Joseph-Lumpkin has overseen countless phone calls, texts and in-person visits to the families struggling most during the pandemic. Members of her department have delivered groceries, provided tech support and connected families to more long-term resources, like food pantries and mental health services.
With all of these efforts, the number of students absent from remote school has steadily decreased since the pandemic began in March. Months into the fall semester, however, hundreds of students have still not logged on at all.
Attend. Connect. Inspire.
Tuesday marked a new infusion of energy into the search for these missing students. Volunteers gathered in the golden afternoon sun next to Hill Regional Career High School to kick off YFCE’s new campaign, “Attend. Connect. Engage.”
The school system holds community canvasses in regular years, where volunteers help staff knock on doors to reach families about going back to school or starting kindergarten.
This year, the canvass is more urgent, Joseph-Lumpkin said.
“Even a small in-person interaction can make a big difference,” Assistant Superintendent Paul Whyte told the assembled volunteers.
After brief instructions from Joseph-Lumpkin, the volunteers paired with YFCE staff members. Clutching lists of addresses, bags of school supplies and informational flyers, the teams set off.
Joining Joseph-Lumpkin and Carolina’s team was James Hillhouse High School grad Samuel Bowens IV (pictured above).
The 22-year-old is a proud volunteer at soup kitchens and in mentorship programs. He counts Carolina as one of the three men who inspired his passion for volunteering, the other two being a drumming instructor and an Omega Psi Phi Fraternity brother. Bowens met Carolina when the district’s now-supervisor of youth development was the Hillhouse High School principal.
Bowens has spent his years since graduating doing renovations and other carpentry work. However, he is about to start work as a paraprofessional in New Haven schools and hopes to build a career as a safe adult in kids’ lives, just as Carolina has been for him.
“[So] they know they have someone to look up to, like a brother or a parent,” Bowens said.
Haunted Houses
Carolina’s connections proved helpful at the first house the team visited. He recognized a young man entering the house, who let the team inside. The family they hoped to visit was not home, so Carolina left a pamphlet on the apartment door.
The next house seemed off, even on paper. Six students were listed at the same address. All were young, were supposed to be students at Troup and had different last names.
Joseph-Lumpkin led the team up to the house. Darkened wood tiles covered the sides of the house. Paint was peeling from the window frames. Signs warned trespassers that they were being filmed.
When there was no answer to several rounds of knocks and doorbells, Joseph-Lumpkin held a poster up to the camera. At last, someone cracked open the door.
Joseph-Lumpkin conferred with the woman at the door for a moment and learned that no children live in the house at all.
The fact that six children were mistakenly listed at the address could be a computer error, Joseph-Lumpkin said. Or the parents could have listed a false address, or moved and not updated the school system. The children will not be removed from Troup’s enrollment list until YFCE confirms that they are safe and sound elsewhere.
“We haven’t seen them, and they are not at the address,” Joseph-Lumpkin said. “These are red flags.”
The team tried another house across the street. The landlord, Jonathan Noonan, was outside raking leaves. He said that the family in question had moved out suddenly a month before. He has been unable to contact them.
“I want to find them as much as you,” Noonan said.
Noonan said that two brothers and their families had lived together in the same home. One moved out. Suddenly so did the other, leaving behind all their furniture and belongings.
For now, Noonan has piled their furniture in a shed behind the house (pictured above). If the family does not get back in touch soon, Noonan plans to get help to haul it all to the sidewalk and picked up by trash collectors.
This left a tally of seven students not only not home but not living at their listed addresses.
This doesn’t usually happen, Joseph-Lumpkin said.
“Part of this is the despair [caused by the pandemic]. We’re trying to understand stories. We don’t know their story and we have to know it,” Carolina said.
Carolina noted that it sounded like the families were combining resources by doubling up.
“We don’t know what strain they were under to leave so suddenly,” Joseph-Lumpkin said.
The department may be able to use a state records system to check whether the student had moved somewhere else in Connecticut.
Joseph-Lumpkin said that the department does not give up. She recalled finding a student in a homeless shelter elsewhere in the state after the student had fled home. Her department was able to find a ride for the student and get the student back to school.
Thanks For The Books
Carolina, Joseph-Lumpkin and Bowens finally connected with a parent at the last house of the afternoon.
“Who is knocking on my door like that?” a little girl called out from inside.
When the girl’s mother answered the door, Joseph-Lumpkin and Carolina explained that they had books, school supplies and other goodies from the school system in a bag. The little girl took the bag and scampered immediately back to her apartment.
Joseph-Lumpkin then got down to the real business of the visit: How are things going? Does the little girl have a tablet or Chromebook?
Yes, she is able to connect, the mom relayed. She didn’t go to school today, but she would try harder tomorrow.
Joseph-Lumpkin offered her own experience trying to get her two children out of bed and ready for school.
“I know it’s tough,” Joseph-Lumpkin said. “Do you have people to talk to? Church friends? Regular friends?”
The team wrapped up the visit reinforcing the message that the mother could call them if she needed anything. Everyone was waiting for the home’s little student to come back to school. The mom thanked Joseph-Lumpkin and Carolina for the books.
Joseph-Lumpkin and Carolina summarized the visit: The mother seemed overwhelmed but receptive. And they now knew that this student on their list was happy and healthy.