LOWELL — The COVID-19 pandemic did more than cause supply-chain and labor-market issues; it also caused chronic absenteeism and a rise in dropout rates at secondary schools throughout the commonwealth, including in Lowell.
“School Year 2022 saw unprecedented disengagement among Lowell Public Schools students in the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Student Resource Center Director Lauren Campion wrote in a motion response to the School Committee’s request for information on the issue.
“According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) accountability report, four in ten students were chronically absent in SY22,” Campion wrote. “More students dropped out than any year prior, and fewer students graduated despite the state waiving their MCAS testing requirement.”
A student is considered chronically absent when they miss 10% or more school days due to absence for any reason — excused, unexcused absences and suspensions — in the 180-day school year. That means a student would miss about 18 days of school per year.
In 2022, absenteeism at the Robinson Middle School in Centralville was a shocking 52%. By 2023, the number had dropped to 35%, which showed improvement, but committee member Jackie Doherty said during the Jan. 17 meeting that continuing chronic absenteeism from the pandemic is “horrific.”
“We still have really high numbers,” she said.
Another Centralville school, the Greenhalge Elementary, was spotlighted by DESE for its drastic improvement in chronic absenteeism to near its pre-pandemic rate.
The turnaround was attributed to the staff’s strong implementation of the district’s attendance intervention plan and a schoolwide culture of support.
“Coming out of the pandemic, the odds were stacked against the PK-4 school,” DESE wrote. “In 2021-22, nearly half of students were chronically absent. Many Greenhalge families experienced economic and housing instability, food and job insecurity, language and cultural barriers, a lack of transportation, and health concerns.”
The student population at Greenhalge is majority Hispanic, and four out of 10 are English learners — two student groups with some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism statewide.
District staff analyzed attendance data and uncovered patterns in absenteeism. Nearly 10% of Lowell students were absent on Fridays, more than any other day of the week. Certain months, such as December and June, saw spikes in absences. The district used these patterns to plan interventions and grouped students into tiers of support based on attendance data.
“At Greenhalge, school leaders added social workers and multilingual staff and shifted the approach to attendance from compliance to engagement,” noted the DESE report. “Now there is more focus on building relationships, checking in more often with families of students who are absent, and explaining why it matters.”
For the first quarter of the 2023-2024 school year, the chronic absenteeism rate at the Greenhalge dropped to 19% for grades 1-4, a half point lower than its 2019 pre-pandemic rate.
The chronic absenteeism rate at Lowell High School continues to concern leadership.
Committee member Dave Conway said that as a former educator, he knows that attendance affects all aspects of a student’s education.
The Belvidere resident was a Lowell High School fixture for decades beginning in the early 1970s, first as a teacher and then as a housemaster (now called a house dean) from 1994 to 2007.
“The staff often complains about chronic absenteeism,” Conway said. “If that student isn’t sitting in that seat, education isn’t going to take place.”
In 2022, Lowell High’s chronic absenteeism rate was 42%. It dropped by only 5% in 2023, closing out the year at a still high 37%. Rates were not available for the first quarter of 2023-2024.
The administration is committed to improving student attendance and graduation rates though, said Superintendent of Schools Liam Skinner, who told the committee that today’s chronic absenteeism isn’t traditional truancy.
“It’s more to do with other issues,” he said. “Mental health issues, oftentimes.”
Some of those reengagement strategies included adding attendance monitors, improving staffing and wraparound services provided by school-based support staff such as social workers, parent liaisons, student support specialist and paraprofessionals.
“Students cannot learn if they aren’t in school, and face barriers to academic growth if they have unmet needs,” Campion wrote.
Another approach to engage learners was committee member Fred Bahou’s Feb. 7 motion to have Skinner and Chief Academic Officer Robin Desmond look into the feasibility of developing Chapter 74 vocational programming in the Lowell High School curriculum.
Skinner applauded Bahou’s motion as an opportunity for students who didn’t make the cut for vocational schooling to stay engaged in their learning at Lowell High by taking similar hands-on, job-ready programming.
“We’re trying different other ways to engage our students and bring up their attendance,” Skinner said.
The School Committee unanimously voted to send the motion response to the Curriculum Subcommittee.
It also voted to accept and expend a supplemental appropriation from DESE in the amount of $10,000 from the Chronic Absences Supplemental Appropriation to reduce chronic absenteeism in Lowell schools.