The effects of chronic absenteeism, when students miss at least 10% of the school year, are many — from falling behind grade level to creating gaps in learning and eventually a rise in students dropping out.
Connecticut saw a spike in the number of kids routinely missing school during the pandemic, but data now shows several districts in the state are making strides in getting kids back.
The latest Connecticut State Department of Education data shows that 13.3% of students were chronically absent in the year to date October report, which represents the lowest October rate since the state began collecting data six years ago.
A state program implemented in 2021 to address student absenteeism— the Learner Engagement and Attendance Program – helped to significantly reduce chronic absenteeism rates in 15 school districts, sending teachers and staff from mostly urban and disadvantaged school districts to homes of chronically absent children, state data and UConn data shows. Those districts included New Haven, Waterbury, Bridgeport and Hartford.
Eric Brunner, an economist at UConn in the School of Public Pharmacy, evaluated the program and its impact on student attendance and found it to be successful at getting kids that were chronically absent back into school.
“What we observed is after the student had a meeting at their home or another location, we saw a 10-15% increase in attendance,” Brunner said.
The program has been paired with district leaders focusing on increasing parental engagement, moving away from punitive actions towards parents, home visits, creating chronic absenteeism teams to track and review data in schools, and incentivizing students to come to school and has proven successful in moving the state closer to its pre-pandemic chronic absenteeism rate of 10%, several district education officials said.
But Kari Sullivan Custer, CSDE attendance lead, said more work needs to be done to continue to bring down the chronic absenteeism rate.
“We are trying to meet the needs of all learners and create an environment where all kids can be successful,” she said.
Morgaen Donaldson, the Neag School’s associate dean for research and UConn’s Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair, said Connecticut is moving in the right direction as the percentage of chronically absent students has dropped over 6 percentage points since 2021-22.
But stark differences remain in chronic absenteeism rates of students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch and those who are not.
For those who are not eligible for free and reduced lunch, the chronic absenteeism rate was 9.5%. By comparison, the chronic absentee rate for those who were eligible for free lunch was 28.2%, Donaldson said.
“It means that kids who tend to be missing a lot of school tend to be low income,” she said, which results in those students falling further behind.
Waterbury, Hartford and New Haven school districts, which all participated in LEAP, shared the mechanisms they put in place to target chronic absenteeism rates, including focusing on parental and student engagement and finding creative ways to get students excited about coming to school such as themed days and rewards for good student attendance.
Some of the challenges districts continue to face in reducing the chronic absenteeism rate surround the aftermath of the pandemic coupled with transportation and mental health challenges, district and education union officials said.
Students learning differently
Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said one of the factors that has driven up the chronic absenteeism rate is the transition after COVID children came back to school.
“They had been engaged in their learning in a digital manner,” she said. “During the time of crisis we ended up shrinking our curriculum. When returning in person, kids were like, “I don’t want to do this.”
She said other factors include mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression.
Peter McCasland, building principal at West Side Elementary in Waterbury, said transportation issues factor in students coming to school including a lack of reliability of school buses and inability of parents to bring students.
“There is also a fear of ICE,” he said.
William Santiago, PTO president and a member of the school governance council at Kingsbury Elementary school in Waterbury, said there are other factors that may deter students from coming to school such as not having clean clothes, a uniform or a warm coat or unique circumstances in the home.
Focusing on the data
Waterbury Schools’ chronic absenteeism rate dropped dramatically from 39.5% in the 2021-22 to 25.8% in 2024-25.
Waterbury Superintendent Darren Schwartz said the district focused largely on assembling chronic absenteeism teams at each school to review the data and take actions to be proactive in getting students back to school.
Schwartz said the chronic absenteeism teams review the data regularly and reach out to the parents of those who are chronically absent.
“Sometimes that could be a discussion with the parent about what is going on and what else we can help with or a referral to a local service that can support the family who may be struggling with something specific,” he said. “It is about trying to have that conversation to let parents know we care about seeing their children in school on a daily basis.”
Schwartz said engaging lessons and making sure students have a trusted adult they can go to have all proven fruitful in reducing the chronic absenteeism rate.
Hannah Sam, principal at Kingsbury, said when she became principal in 2022, the school did not have any parental involvement.
“Our mission was to create a nurturing environment for students,” she said. “And part of that mission is to collaborate with stakeholders, including parents. They are key to the work we do.”
In her first year, Sam formed a PTO and school governance council in the school to engage parents.
The school also drastically reduced its chronic absenteeism rate from 41% in 2020 to 23.8 in the 2024-25 school year.
“I call every new parent to the school and check in to see how they are doing and to make sure that kids feel safe,” she said.
Sam said the school has also held parent workshops, and began holding Thanksgiving dinners and engaging students in various themed days like dancing at the end of some days or wearing pink.
Every day the school announces the classroom with perfect attendance and Sam said there are incentives to continue to come to school. The classroom with the most perfect attendance receives a pizza party.
“We want to make our buildings a home away from home,” said Jackie Davis, the director of climate and student support services at Waterbury schools. “A place where our students feel connected and excited to be there.”
Santiago said prior to Sam’s appointment, most parents did not know what the inside of the school looked like. With the change in culture that he referred to as focused on love and respect, students and parents feel welcome, he said.
McCasland also said he has focused on creating a welcoming environment for students.
“We fixed the school,” he said. “We painted it, branded it and made it more aesthetically pleasing and every teacher has the same framework as we allow them to teach how they want. Students make more friends and connect not only with students but with teachers.”
The school reduced its chronic absenteeism rate from 60.1% in 2020 to 27.4%, McCasland said. The school was classified a turnaround school and this month the state determined it was no longer in turnaround status, making progress, which McCasland cited was correlated to students returning back to school which factored in helping improve student achievement.
Engaging with families
New Haven Schools reduced chronic absenteeism from 58.1% in 2021 to 32.1% in 2024-25.
Superintendent Madeline Negron said the top reason families give for students not attending is due to being sick. Another top reason, she said, is disengagement with learning.
She said reducing chronic absenteeism has been a priority for the last three years.
“We have to tackle it from multiple spaces and part of it is honing in on student engagement,” she said. “How do we make our schools welcoming? How do we incentivize kids and ensure that lessons are becoming more engaging for kids?”
She said it also is about ensuring students’ voices are heard and providing mentors for them if needed.
“Not only do we tackle student engagement but we also tackle family engagement and getting more parents feeling like if they need support we can bring care coordinators to support their needs,” Negron said.
Hartford also reduced its chronic absenteeism rate from 46% in 2021 to 36.2% in 2024-25 school year.
“Our approach begins with root cause identification and interventions that promote student attendance, such as overcoming transportation challenges, health concerns, or competing family needs,” said Hartford Superintendent Andrae Townsel in an email. “This effort is coupled with building positive school structures that actively foster student success and engagement, alongside consistently highlighting student efforts and achievements to make school a desirable environment.”
Townsel cited the district’s involvement with LEAP as also critical in helping to improve attendance.
“The district also worked with the city officials and the Hartford Police Department to design safer walking routes to school and approve the implementation of speed and red light cameras, significantly improving attendance rates at schools like McDonough Middle School,” he said.
Carol Gale, president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers, said there was a huge push for attendance through art competitions for the best logo and artwork promoting student attendance videos as well as incentivizing students to come to school by highlighting good attendance. The reduction in the school day from seven and a half hours to seven has also proved empirically to help improve attendance, she said.
Bridgeport’s chronic absenteeism rate also dropped from 30.6 in 2021 to 22.6% in 2025.
“This progress is the result of principals leading with intention, teachers building strong relationships and school teams staying connected with families,” said Bridgeport Superintendent Royce Avery in a statement. “When our district comes together with one purpose, our students feel the difference.”