Boulder Valley is updating its attendance practices and policies as the district tackles an increase in chronic absenteeism following the pandemic.
“We’ve done a really good job in putting some structures and things together to do our best to invite students back to some normalcy,” said Elton Davis, Boulder Valley student support services director. “It’s putting us on a good track to get where we want to be.”
Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of the school days in a school year, including both excused and unexcused absences. Attendance Works, a national nonprofit group, found that chronic absenteeism can lead to students not learning to read by the third grade, struggling academically in middle school and not graduating from high school.
Statewide, an analysis by the Colorado Department of Education found more than one out of every four students missed more than 10% of school in the 2022-23 school year, for a chronically absent rate of 31%. That’s the second highest number of chronic absences recorded, topped only by the 2021-22 school year during the pandemic.
In Boulder Valley, the district reported a chronic absenteeism rate in 2020-21 of 15%. The rate rose to 23% in 2021-22, then fell slightly to 22% last school year.
The district’s overall attendance rate also fell during the pandemic, from about 94% in the 2020-21 school year to about 92% last school year. Absenteeism is highest at high school, at about 9%, and drops to around 7% at elementary and middle school.
“Nationwide, attendance post pandemic is an area of significant concern,” said Robbyn Fernandez, Boulder Valley’s assistant superintendent of school leadership. “We’re not quite to pre-pandemic levels, but almost. We’re trying to get that last tiny bit of attendance increase.”
Starting in the fall, Boulder Valley leaders asked schools to incorporate attendance data in the system that’s used to determine how best to support students struggling academically. The goal is to identify students with attendance concerns earlier and intervene before they become chronically absent.
The school district also added a comprehensive attendance tracking system to analyze data at different levels, from individual students to schools to the district as a whole.
“It’s not by chance whether or not a student is given a support plan or is identified,” Fernandez said. “It’s really a holistic approach to attendance. We want to make sure we are catching all of our students who might be needing some extra support.”
In August, the school board directed a 23-member task force to make recommendations to revamp the attendance policy to make it more equitable and consistent. Before making the recommendations earlier this spring, the task force sought feedback from parent and student groups, as well as school leaders.
The school board approved the policy changes in March, which include definitions that clarify excused versus unexcused absences and what counts as a “tardy” versus an absence. The changes require teachers to allow students to earn 75% of the available credit for make-up work after skipping a class and encourages restorative practices instead of academic penalties. There’s also no longer a requirement for a doctor’s note to excuse an absence for a single period.
Penalties for unexcused absences can include a warning, school detention or in-school suspension, but not out-of-school suspensions or expulsion. As a last resort, the district can initiate a case in truancy court. Boulder Valley in March had 12 open truancy cases in Boulder County and none in Broomfield.
Kathleen Sullivan, Boulder Valley’s legal counsel, said the district suspended its truancy court cases during the pandemic. When school returned in person, the district met with the Boulder County courts to review the effectiveness of truancy proceedings.
Court can be helpful when there’s a family barrier to attendance and support is needed from the Department of Housing and Human Services or other agencies, Sullivan said.
But, she said, “if the issue is really more around the student, being brought back to court repeatedly over and over to have a judge tell you to go to school doesn’t seem to be an effective intervention.”
District leaders said the goal is a less punitive, more supportive approach. If school-level interventions aren’t working, schools bring in attendance advocates, who work with younger students, and engagement specialists, who work with older ones.
“Knowing that poor attendance is a by-product of something else, we try to identify what the barriers are for students,” Davis said. “We want to look at the student and family as a whole and how we can support each family.”
The three attendance advocates and three engagement specialists work as a team with a school’s other student support staff members.
“I’m a bridge between the families and the school,” engagement specialist Raquel Ramirez said. “We do a lot of home visits, texting and phone calls.”
She said housing instability has become a “huge hurdle” for some chronically absent students. A lack of mental health resources in the community also is a challenge. Other barriers she’s seeing are food insecurity and transportation, though she said RTD allowing students to ride free this school year has really helped.
Attendance advocate Renny Turner meets weekly with leaders at three middle schools and eight elementary schools to review attendance rates and talk about support plans for students who aren’t showing up.
“A lot of what we find, is, truancy is a symptom of what is going on in the home,” she said.
Turner said missing school for illness also is an ongoing challenge, especially in the early elementary grades where children isolated during the pandemic couldn’t build up immunity to common illnesses.
Plus, she said, “there’s been a lot of mixed messaging to parents. A year ago, it was ‘don’t send your kids to school if they’re sick.’ Now, they’re hearing to ‘send them no matter what.’ ”
Turner said she is hopeful the new attendance policy will make the expectations less confusing for families. The state also has guidelines to help families determine “How Sick is Too Sick” to attend school.
“It’s not about getting parents in trouble, it’s about educating them on the importance of having kids in school and how it can affect their education long term,” she said. “It’s more of a way to resolve issues and to get kids back in school.”
