Schools Keep More Kids In School

by Maya McFadden The New Haven independent

More New Haven students are showing up to class and staying there, according to school district leaders, who report that 23 percent of students are chronically absent — compared to 49 percent this time in 2021.

Chief of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Gemma Joseph Lumpkin provided that update Monday evening to the Board of Education at its regular meeting held at King/Robinson School.

Currently, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) reports that 23.6 percent of students are chronically absent. This time last year, the chronic absenteeism rate was at 29.9 percent. Joseph Lumpkin credits home visits, intensive intervention, and revamped 9th-grade support with the improvement.

Joseph Lumpkin reported that NHPS’ chronic absenteeism rate reached 58 percent at the end of the 2021-22 school year. Last school year, the end-of-year rate decreased to 32 percent. Joseph Lumpkin has set the goal for the 2025-26 school year to end at no higher than 29.9 percent.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as students missing ten percent or more days of the academic year. That means a student who misses 18 out of 180 days over the course of the year is deemed chronically absent.

Being chronically absent in the elementary grades, Joseph Lumpkin said, impacts reading skills and cognitive abilities. By the middle school level, if chronic absenteeism continues, it increases a student’s risk of being involved with the juvenile system. And by high school, research shows and the district sees that being chronically absent increases students’ risk of dropping out of school by the end of 9th grade, as well as exposure to the criminal justice system.

Last year, Joseph Lumpkin’s team made 7,500 home visits to NHPS families. This has been a major strategy of the district’s in recent years, Joesph Lumpkin said, to hear directly from students and their families about the obstacles they face that keep them from attending school.

The district reported that, with data gathered from home visits, the most common reasons why 583 families reported students as chronically absent are because of students’ physical health (166 students, or 28 percent), student disengagement (120 students, or nearly 21 percent), and transportation (53 students, or 9 percent).

Other reasons included suspension, family travel, family health, childcare, and school climate.

NHPS uses a tiered approach to identify students who need early or intensive intervention and overall prevention.

For early intervention, Joseph Lumpkin’s team is currently working with approximately 4,000 students. Twenty drop out-prevention specialists each work with 200-250 students. For intensive intervention, the team has four care coordinators, six youth coordinators, and several community partners to work with its approximately 3,000 identified students.

Other efforts include enhancing school buildings’ student engagement, family engagement, school and district supports like School Planning and Management Teams (SPMT), and community partnerships for extracurricular activities and external referrals.

Wilbur Cross High School principal Matt Brown also presented on Monday some of the efforts being made to address chronic absenteeism at the city’s largest high school.

In a building that houses nearly 2,000 people every day, including staff and students, Brown reported that in 2022, Cross’ school year ended with a chronic absenteeism rate of 53 percent. Last school year, the rate declined to 45.4 percent.

As of October, Brown reported that 34.8 percent of students are chronically absent compared to 42.5 percent around the same time last year.

The school surveyed hundreds of students last school year to understand why they attend school and learned the top reason was “my future” (61 percent) followed by parental expectations (52.8 percent). Those surveyed reported that they are interested in careers in healthcare, technology, and business. This helped Cross revamp its academy career pathways for the first time in 12 years that are offered for students to progress through a career pathway of interest. The school also introduced a freshmen academy so that first-year students can decide their academies later rather than immediately be placed in the international; arts, media and public service; or design, innovation, and industry academies.

Cross staff also requested that the school focus in more heavily on its 9th graders transitioning to high school from middle school.

In 2022, Cross had 69 percent of 9th graders on track for graduation. That number has since increased in 2024-25 to 75 percent. Cross’ data though increasing still falls short of the state’s average of 85.9 percent of 9th graders on track for graduation.

As a result, this year, Cross moved its freshmen core classes to all be on the third floor creating a hub of wraparound staff and supports for freshmen. Currently, 86 percent of 9th graders are on track for graduation (earning seven credits), and Brown has a goal of 90 percent by the end of the year. “Something we never could’ve done last year, never could’ve done the years before, to really honor the particular needs of this class,” Brown said.

Several school board members thanked Joseph Lumpkin and Brown for the Monday presentation being backed by research and data. They also pointed out that Joseph Lumpkin’s team is doing the work while severely understaffed and the district while underfunded.

View the full presentation below.