New Bedford, Fall River schools rank high in chronic absenteeism. Here's why it matters.

NEW BEDFORD — On a surface level, it appears as if the everyday business of schools has returned to pre-pandemic norms: It's been over three years since most Massachusetts schools returned to full in-person learning, and at least two since students were reminded to mask up and remain 6 feet apart at all times. But despite appearances, the state's latest school attendance data shows that there's still a ways to go in undoing the damage COVID unleashed in March 2020.

When it comes to what the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education refers to as "chronic absenteeism" — when a student is absent 10% or more of the school year — 22.2% of all students statewide were chronically absent during the 2022-2023 school year, according to DESE's data. This is an improvement from 2021-22 (27.7%) but still much higher than the pre-pandemic baseline (12.9% in 2018-19). '

Ten percent of the school year usually equates to 18 days out of 180, according to a report released last month by Massachusetts Education-to-Career and Data Hub, provided by DESE.

SouthCoast's two urban hub districts of New Bedford Public Schools and Fall River Public Schools landed toward the top of the list in the 2022-2023 school year, according to DESE's data.

Out of 399 Mass. districts — counting public single-school districts like voc-techs and charters — FRPS had the 27th highest rate, with 37.3% of students deemed chronically absent, and an overall attendance rate of 89.7% for the year. NBPS was No. 33, with 35.8% of students chronically absent, and an attendance rate of 89.9%.

Who is most likely to be chronically absent?

When it comes to who is most likely to be chronically absent, the data shows Pre-K/Kindergarten students and high schoolers were the top two grade-level categories even before the pandemic. In the 2022-2023 school year, 30.5% of Pre-K/K students, and 26.4% of students in grades 9 to 12, were chronically absent. In comparison, grades 1 to 5 was the group with the lowest rate, at 17.7%.

See what's new: New Bedford Emergency Management's new vehicle will be vital at public safety incidents

The March report also highlights that there are racial disparities when it comes to chronic absenteeism.

"Hispanic or Latino students are the most likely of any ethnic-racial group to be chronically absent (34.5% in 2022-23)," the report reads, going on to note higher-than-average rates of chronic absenteeism also for English language learners (33.5%) and students with disabilities (30.4%).

Data for the New Bedford and Fall River public school systems show trends for these groups is in line with — albeit, more severe in comparison to — statewide averages; Fall River stands out with a lower rate of chronically absent English language learners than the state average.

The following table shows how chronic absenteeism for these groups and others in the two districts compares to state data.

Putting chronic absenteeism in context

When asked to comment for a recent Enterprise article on chronic absenteeism, sources pointed to COVID being the culprit from a number of angles.

"Normally when we see a high level of chronic absence, it's often connected to these positive conditions for learning being significantly eroded," Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, told The Enterprise of Brockton, going on to say, "The pandemic — the disruptions, the health issues, the economic challenges — all affected schools with higher proportions of low-income kids more."

When it comes to percentages of total student populations that are low-income, New Bedford comes in at No. 19 in the state, according to 2023-2024 data, with 79.8% of students considered low-income; Fall River comes in at No. 24, with 78.5%.

In comparison, Brockton Public Schools comes in at No. 34 for highest percentage of low-income students, at 74%. Meanwhile, Brockton came in at No. 65 in the state for chronic absenteeism, with a percentage of 29.8% having been absent 10% or more of the 2022-2023 school year.

Administrations and School Committee members from both New Bedford and Fall River school systems, as well as representatives from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, did not oblige invitations to comment for this article.

"COVID was one driving force, but this was already a problem long before the pandemic," filmmaker and educational leader Carla McCullough told The Enterprise. McCullough is author of an opinion piece titled "Another epidemic is causing Black students to fall behind: Chronic absenteeism" for The Hechinger Report at Columbia University. "Once students were at home, parents were able to see what was going on in the classroom through Zoom, and that is part of what derailed parents from being adamant about sending their kids back to school once classes resumed. I think students also got used to be at home and they didn't necessarily want to go back to some school environments that are not as welcoming."

Keep up with the latest local news: New Bedford city councilor wants closer look at 2020 complaints against Building Dept.

McCullough said older students suddenly being required to work or care for younger siblings also "might be one contributing factor that required students to be home or be less engaged in school."

Why does it matter?

According to the Massachusetts Education-to-Career and Data Hub report, students who were chronically absent in kindergarten had the lowest academic performances among their first-grade peers, "with even lower performance for students in poverty who were chronically absent in kindergarten."

Ultimately, chronic absenteeism is can be an early — as well as a more immediate — indicator of a student dropping out of high school, the report suggests.

"In high school, being chronically absent is associated with higher rates of dropout and lower rates of on-time graduation," the report reads, noting nearly 90% of Massachusetts students who dropped out during the 2021-2022 school year had been chronically absent that year, and over half of dropouts were chronically absent in the three years leading up. "As early as sixth grade, chronic absenteeism is an early warning sign that a student is less likely to graduate high school."

According to DESE's statewide 2022 graduation data, the latest available in a statewide report, New Bedford ranked No. 10 in the state when it came to the high school dropout rate, with 19.8% of students having dropped out. Fall River was No. 16, at 14.2%. Brockton came in at No. 39, with 9.1%.

How do you fix chronic absenteeism?

Chang says Attendance Works, a national and state level initiative aimed at addressing chronic absence, recommends a tiered approach to deal with chronic absenteeism that always starts with foundational supports for the entire school. The foundational supports are followed by prevention-oriented supports for attendance, more personalized outreach or early intervention and then intensive intervention.

"Finding out what are some of the crutch barriers some kids face is really important because your solutions then need to reflect your understanding," she said. "Do you need to create more access to health care on campuses? Do you need to make sure there's more guidance on whether kids should show up to school or not? Is part of the challenge that there's bullying going on? Is there a lack of connection to enrichment activities and sports?"

According to the Massachusetts Education-to-Career and Data Hub report, DESE has $4 million allocated to help 170 districts — each having received $10,000 each, as well as "technical support" — for the 2023-2024 school year, meant to help districts enhance one or more of the following: track and monitor attendance data, family engagement practices, "attendance academies for out-of-school learning recovery," and "implementation of evidence-based practices."

It is not known to The Standard-Times whether New Bedford or Fall River were among districts to receive said funding.

Stay current: OSHA fines company after New Bedford dock collapse that injured Eastern Fisheries workers

The report also notes the state's "all-hands-on-deck" approach to addressing chronic absenteeism has involved using data to identify "attendance priority schools," and a January 2024 multilingual ad campaign.

More highlights

• The five Mass. districts with lowest chronic absenteeism in 2022-2023 were all voc-techs, charters, and in the case of the very lowest rate, a "non-residential magnet school" catering to "academically advanced youth in grades 11 and 12," according to an online description of the Massachusetts Academy of Math & Science in Worcester.

• The top 12 districts with the state's highest rates of chronic absenteeism are all charter schools, with Holyoke Public Schools being the top comprehensive public school district on that list.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford, Fall River schools rank high in chronic absenteeism