10 Groups Tapped To Counter Absenteeism

by MAYA MCFADDEN

The city’s public school district plans to partner with 10 community organizations to provide case management and mentorship for students and families in a bid to make sure young people go to class, and to curb too-high rates of chronic absenteeism.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Chief of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Gemma Joseph Lumpkin presented that plan to the Board of Education Finance & Operations Committee Monday during the panel’s latest regular meeting online via Zoom. 
Joseph Lumpkin pitched 10 proposed agreements in total. The ed board committee members unanimously recommended approval of all 10, which now head to the full Board of Education for a final review and vote. Joseph Lumpkin said she plans to make a larger presentation about how the district is “deepening our family engagements” to the full ed board at a future meeting.
The first cohort of organizations the district has arranged to contract with include Alpha to Omega Management Group’s Brown Girls Cooking and Conversation, Connecticut Violence Intervention Program Inc., Ice the Beef, Arts in CT Corp, Kiyama Movement Inc., Upon this Rock Ministries, S.P.O.R.T Academy, Kids Kraze, Urban Community Alliance, and The Monk Center for Academic Enrichment and Performing Arts. (Click here to read more about each program.) 
In total, the 10 partner organizations will work with 840 students. This plan will cost the district more than $800,000 to contract the organizations to expand their scopes of service to include outreach and case management to chronically absent students. The organizations vary in size. Some will work with as few as 20 students each; several will work with at least 100 students each. 

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO
Chief of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Gemma Joseph Lumpkin: “We’re heading in the right direction. We need a lot of support.”

The 10 proposed new agreements each describe the goal of the partnership as: “The project enables NHPS staff to address other critical student needs, including behavioral and mental health issues, housing, childcare, lack of technology, and other educational needs. Leveraging community partners resources will help bridge the connection needed to address the concerns keeping students from attending school.” 
This proposal comes as New Haven struggles with a pandemic-exacerbated surge in chronic absenteeism. That led to state lawmakers and education leaders calling NHPS to a special meeting to press the district on its absenteeism numbers and how to make sure students go to school.
The state Department of Education reported that NHPS ended last school year with 60.2 percent (10,852 students) of all students being chronically absent in June 2022. In December 2022, which is not yet at the halfway point of this school year, 45.9 percent (8,162 students) were chronically absent. The projected number of chronic absences in January 2023 is expected to decline to 39.8 percent (7,075 students).
“We’re heading in the right direction,” Joseph Lumpkin said during Monday’s committee meeting. “We need a lot of support.”

READ MORE This article was originally posted to New Haven Independent