Appleton Area Schools see drop in student absences, but work is still needed
Editor's note: The original version of this story misstated the percentage for chronic absenteeism. That percentage has been updated.
More kids in Appleton are staying in school thanks to efforts from the district and other organizations, but, as in many districts across the state, the pandemic is still having an effect on school attendance and chronic absenteeism.
When we looked at the latest data last month, the rate of chronic absenteeism in the Appleton Area School District had dropped to 17% for the 2022-23 school year, down from 21% for 2021-22. "Chronic absenteeism" is defined as students missing more than 10% of days in a given school year.
The district has "allocated a significant number of resources into supporting our students that are struggling with consistent attendance," said AASD superintendent Greg Hartjes, so they're "pleased to see improvement."
But there's still work to be done, Hartjes added, because absenteeism is still twice what it was pre-pandemic. In the 2018-19 school year, AASD's chronic absenteeism rate was 7%, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
We talked with AASD last year about efforts they were making to help kids stay in school. Here's how those efforts have fared.
What's been working: incentives, community education and building one-on-one relationships
Efforts to help kids stay in school began right away during the school year, said AASD attendance coordinator Stephanie Marta. It started with an "attendance campaign" to educate the community about the importance of attending and staying in school, including yard signs, posters and postcards.
During the school year, the district continued to work with attendance teams to connect with families and students, Marta said. Usually, one of the first steps is to offer an incentive to keep coming to school. Some incentives are for individual students setting goals for themselves, while other incentives include schoolwide celebrations to recognize those students who are doing well.
Other students that need more support will work with mentors, Marta said. The district has trained staff in Check & Connect, an evidence-based program from the University of Minnesota to help students stay in school.
"They'll meet once a week or more with students," Marta said. "They'll talk about grades and keep the lines of communication open between home and school."
The Boys and Girls Club of Appleton helps with student mentorship through its Truancy Reduction & Assessment Center. In TRAC, three case managers receive referrals from the school and use a version of Check & Connect to help build positive relationships between the student and their school.
This year, said senior director Kayla McNamara, TRAC continued to work on cases from the previous year. That meant they "were able to pick back up and not really miss a beat" in September with students who needed extra help last year.
"We're sitting down with a young person, asking them questions, and trying to get to know them and what their life is like, what they want to do some day," McNamara said. "We want to understand what that student needs to get back on track."
She said TRAC served 284 students last school year and 235 this year, though she expects to see about 40 more students needing help before the end of this school year.
Mental health issues from the pandemic continue to affect student attendance; work still needed
While community partnerships and relationship-building play a critical role in helping students, both McNamara and Marta said they're still seeing long-term effects of the pandemic play a role in attendance issues.
A number of students are suffering from anxiety and other mental health issues as a result of the pandemic, McNamara said. "There's been an increase in mental health concerns across the nation and locally, it's no different," she said.
As a result, Marta said, some kids have trouble with wanting to come to school at all. To help them, the district is "trying to come up with different strategies and alternatives for those students who have school anxiety." Often, she added, it starts with getting them in school for a little bit of time "and building on that."
Other kids struggle with economic circumstances, Marta said, in the case of families who don't have reliable housing or transportation. And, in some cases, McNamara said, "(Older students) may need to provide care for a younger sibling or have to work late into the night."
Still, AASD has a concrete goal for its attendance rates: "We really would like to get rates back to what they were prior to the pandemic," Marta said.
At the end of the day, however, the goal is to help students attend school regularly, and partnerships between students, schools, families and community organizations are key to that, she said.
"Whether you're missing school through excused (absences) or not, we want students there to receive instruction," Marta said.
"We receive a lot of support and communication from principals in Appleton because they care," McNamara said. "They are setting it up so that a young person can know there's another person that cares for you."
Rebecca Loroff is a K-12 education reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. She welcomes story tips and feedback. Contact her at 920-907-7801 or rloroff@gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @RebeccaLoroff.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: AASD, community partners work to decrease student absenteeism
