Multiple districts — Without the intervention of her family, America Estrada might not be on track to graduate at the end of the year.
The Comstock Park High School senior used to “constantly skip” school due to problems at home, even finding herself in truancy court at one time. But when her stepfather, Mike Sanchez, entered her life, he helped her turn things around.
“He encourages me to go to school every day,” America said. “He wakes me up. He’s always motivating me in life, and always tells me, ‘I’m here for you.’”
Experts like Kent ISD Attendance Officer Mark Larson say that kind of family involvement is a crucial part of bolstering consistent attendance and reducing absenteeism.
More than four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent chronic absenteeism rates skyrocketing, students are still missing too much school.
According to the Michigan Department of Education, in the 2023-24 school year about a third of K-12 students in Michigan were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days due to excused or unexcused absences. That’s better than 2022-23, and much better than 2021-22, when chronic absenteeism soared to 38.5%. But rates are still well above their pre-pandemic baseline of less than 20%.
In Kent ISD’s service area, chronic absenteeism decreased from 24.4% in 2022-23 to 22.8% in 2023-24, according to MI School Data. Prior to the pandemic, in the 2018-19 school year, chronic absenteeism in Kent ISD was at 14.6%.
“We’re not back to pre-COVID levels, but we’ve improved some since coming back,” Larson said. But despite the improvements, he said, “it’s bad.”
Confronting Chronic Absenteeism
The causes are manifold, ranging from social and emotional to financial and logistical. Students in poverty, students with disabilities and students of color are more likely to be affected, according to Attendance Works, a nonprofit that works with schools and communities. Mental and physical health are also factors, as are unmet transportation, housing and hygiene needs.
Regardless of the cause, the effect is the same: learning is lost and achievement suffers.
“When a student misses 10% of school for any reason, excused or unexcused, all measures of learning achievement drop precipitously,” Larson said.
Area educators say the pandemic intensified and exacerbated struggles that already hindered attendance.
“Chronic absenteeism was a problem before the pandemic, (but) I think it’s different now,” said Cedar Springs Superintendent Scott Smith, who works with the Kent School Justice Partnership to address the issue. “There’s more anxiety among students; there’s more social and emotional pressure; there’s more depression now than there was before the pandemic.”
Personalized Interventions
The issue remains a top priority for educators and districts are coming up with different ways to tackle the problem, from Kent City’s attendance contracts and Kent ISD’s “Strive for Less than Five” campaign to more personalized, case-by-case interventions.
At Gladiola Elementary School in Wyoming, it’s a team effort involving students, staff and parents, said Anna Rivera, district support coordinator.
‘We want to collaborate with parents. We can’t do it alone and they can’t.’
— Anna Rivera, Wyoming Public Schools district support coordinator
She recalled a kindergartner in 2021 who had so much anxiety about school that she frequently felt ill and stayed home. Rivera communicated with the child’s mother, the student began seeing a mental health clinician and Rivera created weekly goals to help the child become more comfortable with school.
At first, the goal was for the girl to get from the office to her classroom — walked down by a staff member — by a certain time each morning, first three days in a row, then four.
After hitting that goal, Rivera challenged her to get to class even closer to start time. Little by little, the student joined her peers earlier and earlier, until it became a smooth transition.
Now a third-grader, the student is flourishing, Rivera said.
“This year, the student let her mom know this was the first year she felt excited and she wasn’t nervous to come to school,” she said. “She didn’t feel scared. She was ready to hit the ground running.
“That made me feel so excited and happy. Each year, she’s been able to grow confidently into knowing we love her, appreciate her, we want her here and she belongs in this building.”
Anxiety is a major perpetrator in declining attendance, it can sometimes be addressed in counterproductive ways, Larson said. For instance, when anxiety was high coming out of COVID, some thought the answer was to keep students out of school.
Larson said the ultimate cause of post-COVID anxiety was lost learning, not the act of going to school itself. So it’s important to address the issue without unintentionally exacerbating it by causing students to lose more class time.
“We’ll work with you,” Larson said. “We’ll provide safe places in the school to help the transition, but we’re not helping you if we promote you not being in school.”
Support & Communication
Rivera, who focuses on attendance for Wyoming’s four elementary schools and Wyoming Intermediate School, emphasizes the need for students to be in school all day, every day.
The general rule is that a student should stay home if they have a fever, diarrhea, vomiting or worsening symptoms. But for students who struggle with getting to school for reasons beyond illness, the focus is on support and communication, she said.
Rivera works with attendance teams at each school. At Gladiola, that includes social worker Amy Hendrickson and Principal Dana Stein. They focus on identifying and removing barriers that keep a child from attending.
“The barrier could be as big as a housing crisis or as small as needing an alarm clock,” Hendrickson added. “Typically once we are able to have communication with families, they are pretty open in letting us know what they need.”
Percentage of students chronically absent
– missing at least 10% of school days
| 2018-19 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | |
| Michigan | 19.7% | 30.8% | 29.5% |
| Kent ISD | 14.6% | 24.4% | 22.8% |
At Gladiola about 90% of students are in school each day.
If a student risks being chronically absent, the team creates an attendance improvement plan that includes what the student, parent and school must do to achieve attendance goals.
“That really builds a sense of community and alliance,” Rivera said. “We want to collaborate with parents. We can’t do it alone and they can’t.”
Larson said such plans can successfully get students back on track if they’re followed by students and families, and they can prevent potential trips to court.
Student Success Stories
When the process works, and attendance issues are reversed, it’s a win for educators and students alike.
At Comstock Park, America and her fellow students are proof of that. Like her, junior Joseph Gem and senior Wendy Hernandez overcame struggles with absenteeism — and they’re glad they did.
Joseph’s attendance slipped when he fell in with the wrong crowd and started getting into trouble. His motivation to change: “I came to the realization that this is not what I wanted to be and this is not what I wanted my life to be.”
Through the Kent Career Tech Center he signed up for the electrician course at West Michigan Construction Institute, which has given him something to look forward to. He still has a ways to go to make up for the time he lost, but things are going well.
“It’s been a lot of hard work so far, but I am improving,” Joseph said. “I am making the right steps.”
Wendy experienced family upheaval that disrupted her attendance junior year. The family was separated for a time and struggled with resources and reliable transportation.
When they finally moved into a new home, and her mother started receiving notices about Wendy’s absences, things changed.
‘When a student misses 10% of school for any reason, excused or unexcused, all measures of learning achievement drop precipitously.’
— Kent ISD Attendance Officer Mark Larson
“That’s when she was like, ‘You can’t let family problems get in the way for school, because that’s not going to help you,'” Wendy said.
She also got support from Principal Kendra Faustin and school counselor Anna Stornant, who both noticed something was wrong and reached out. That helped.
Wendy said she had to repeat one class, but other than that, she is on track to graduate and hopes to attend Michigan State University.
“Graduation has always been one of my plans. I struggled last year, but I hope to bring it back this year.”
Asked how they would advise other students in similar situations, she and America had plenty of lessons to impart.
“Think about school or friends and never give up, and follow your dreams and don’t let anything affect you,” America said. “I know people go through hard things, but people can talk to a counselor, friends, family.
“Don’t keep it in, because that just makes it worse.”
Wendy shared a similar sentiment.
“Don’t give up,” she said. “A lot of kids tend to give up when they’re going downhill, and I say, don’t do it.”
Emphasis on Engagement
Smith, the Cedar Springs superintendent, said it’s incumbent upon districts to make sure students are getting the help they need.
“First and foremost, we know we need to do a better job engaging with our students, engaging with our families,” he said. “It’s just being in a place where people feel comfortable and confident to be successful.”
Through the Kent School Justice Partnership, Smith has helped families make connections with social services to improve attendance. More restorative than punitive, the focus includes things like getting students clean clothes or connecting them with helpful agencies.
He also serves on the Kent County Family and Children’s Coordinating Council, helping provide Kent County families with needed resources including closing housing, food and mental-health gaps.
Smith said these organizations are looking to pilot an initiative promoting early intervention to deter chronic absenteeism in kindergarten, first and second grades.
In Cedar Springs, the district aims to make school as welcoming a place as it can be.
“We’re more focused on engagement vs. focused on chronic absenteeism,” Smith said. “Chronic absenteeism is a symptom of a lack of engagement.”
Moving Forward
Larson said it could be years before chronic absenteeism returns to pre-pandemic levels. In the meantime, students, parents and educators must agree about the importance of students consistently attending school, and diligently address chronic absenteeism as soon as warning signs appear, he said.
“There’s this misconception that somehow you’re harming a student or a family if you report them for chronic absenteeism,” said Larson. “But you’re setting them up for some lifelong consequences if you don’t. …
“We have to convince schools that that’s what’s best for the students. It’s got to come from the top — from the superintendents and the principals.”
Reporters Erin Albanese and Joanne Bailey-Boorsma contributed to this story.
Read more:
• Is it enough? Supplemental budget aims to offset mental health, security cuts
• Peer listeners, other mental health supports, key to school safety
