How Austin ISD is lowering its chronic absenteeism rate, which more than doubled during the pandemic

When Austin ISD students Jonnell and Layth started middle school a few years ago, their attendance was on the spottier side. Jonnell said she didn’t like going because it wasn’t easy to get along with some of her classmates at Webb Middle School. But over the years, that’s changed.

“I used to have problems with people, but I learned how to get over them and not hold grudges,” she said.

Layth, for his part, said he was worried about what Webb would be like. He thought there would be lots of fights and bullying – things that could leave him feeling depressed.

“I really judged the school before coming to it,” he said. “But it was all wrong, and overall, I really love this school and I wish I could stay here longer.”

Now in eighth grade, both students have found their footing at Webb and their attendance has improved significantly. Jonnell said one thing that gets her out of bed in the morning is knowing that if she goes to school, she’ll continue to get good grades.

“And if my grades are good,” she said, “my mom will be proud of me.”

Layth said keeping his grades up to make his parents happy also motivates him to go to school. Participating in sports is another motivator, both students said. Jonnell, who’s the only girl on Webb’s football team, points out that if students’ grades aren’t high enough, they can’t play.

Webb’s principal, Michael Coyle, beamed as he talked about the progress Jonnell and Layth have made when it comes to their attendance and their grades. He described them as model students. Jonnell and Layth’s success is something Coyle and Austin ISD, as a whole, is working to replicate as the district continues to tackle an issue that has afflicted schools nationwide since the Covid-19 pandemic: high rates of chronic absenteeism.

What is chronic absenteeism?

K-12 students are considered chronically absent if they miss 10 percent or more days during the school year, whether that absence is excused or not.

Missing that much school isn’t only bad for student achievement. In Texas, it also hurts districts’ finances because the state primarily funds them based on how often students show up to school. Austin ISD estimates increasing its attendance rate by 1 percent would result in an additional $4.5 million in state funding, which would help make a dent in its $92 million budget deficit.

The school district is making a concerted effort to lower its chronic absenteeism rate, which doubled in the wake of the pandemic. During the 2018-19 school year, the rate was 13 percent. Now it’s 26 percent, said Carla De La Rosa, director of student attendance. De La Rosa said the percentage is on par with national numbers. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 28 percent of students nationwide were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year.

While still high, Austin ISD’s chronic absenteeism rate is trending down. Data from the district’s 2023-24 Texas Academic Performance Report show the chronic absenteeism rate was 29.8 percent during the 2021-22 school year. It dropped slightly to 28.7 percent during the 2022-23 school year.

De La Rosa said numbers from the first nine weeks of the current school year have been encouraging.

“Last year, at this time, our chronic absenteeism rate was 15 percent higher than what it is right now,” she said.

Webb Middle School has also seen its chronic absenteeism rate drop. A few years ago it was 38 percent. At the end of the last school year, it was 33 percent.

“So far this year, we decreased it another 8 percent,” Principal Coyle said.

Austin ISD is actually using grant funding from the governor’s office to try to address the underlying causes of chronic absenteeism at Webb and a handful of other campuses. All are Title 1 schools, meaning they have a high percentage of students from low-income households.

The $99,696 in funding Austin ISD received through the Juvenile Justice and Truancy Prevention Grant Program is being used to help provide short-term mental health services to students at these campuses who are missing more than 30 percent of school days. The district is also using the money to fund home visits on nights and weekends to reach families directly.

Why are kids missing school?

While students across all demographic groups at Austin ISD are chronically absent, there are some disparities – which is something the district is hoping to address with this grant. Economically disadvantaged students, for example, had one of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism during the 2022-23 school year at about 40 percent, according to the district’s Texas Academic Performance Report. Again, in contrast, the overall chronic absenteeism rate for Austin ISD that year was 28.7 percent.

Hispanic students, African American students, emergent bilingual students and students receiving special education services also had chronic absenteeism rates during the 2022-23 school year that exceeded Austin ISD’s average. The district’s data mirrors national trends.

Webb Middle School, which has a higher chronic absenteeism rate than the district average, has a significant proportion of students at greater risk of missing 10 or more days of school. More than 98 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged. Nearly 80 percent of the student body is emergent bilingual, meaning they’re fluent in at least one language and learning English. The vast majority of students are Hispanic.

Principal Coyle has spent his more than two decades in education working primarily in Title 1 schools and has seen a variety of barriers that can prevent a child from getting to school. He said he and his team are focused on pinpointing and addressing those barriers for their students as well as their families.

“We have a very strong child study team where we pull up the data each week and say ‘what’s happening with this student, have they been absent? Are we seeing progress?’ (We’re) really going back to the data,” he said.

Coyle, who has worked at Webb for 11 years and is in his third year as principal, described one situation in which they contacted a family to see why their child wasn’t in school and it turned out they lost their electricity. Staff got to work trying to help the family get the power back on.

“This is just one family and one example of over 500 kids who are in very similar situations, so it takes a lot of time but it pays off by looking at each student individually,” he said.

Another reason students might miss school, said Coyle, is they’re working or babysitting siblings to help out their families. He said Webb also has many students who are new to the U.S. and may be coming from countries that have different regulations around school attendance. He added health issues are another factor affecting attendance. He said he has students living in small apartments with large families, so if one person gets sick, everyone does.

“So all of these things can really play a part in why our kids are not making it to school,” he said.

Strategies to increase attendance

Principal Coyle said increasing attendance at Webb Middle School is a campuswide effort from cafeteria workers and custodial staff to teachers.

“Our teachers are on the front line making the phone calls home, like ‘hey, where’s so and so? We miss him. We haven’t seen him in class, what’s going on?’ Really just creating that culture where students want to be here,” he said.

Coyle said the goal is to make students feel welcome, safe and at ease, so they can learn. He said the school has also been trying to help kids understand why attendance matters. They’ve shown students data on how much learning they miss when they’re out for one day.

“If you are not here, you are not learning and then you’re going to be so much further behind,” he said.

When students fall too far behind, Coyle said, it increases their risk of dropping out.

Coyle said another approach Webb is taking to combat chronic absenteeism is rewarding students for good attendance. The school has a new program this year where students can earn points for things like showing up every day. If they earn enough points by the end of the week, they get time to play outside, which they don’t normally get to do in middle school.

Coyle said the program has been a hit with students. Eighth grader Jonnell vouched for that.

“I get to hang out with lots of my friends that I don’t have classes with, so I get to see them more often,” she said.

Coyle said if the staff can help students understand the value of attendance in middle school, it will set them up for success in high school.

“The reason so many of us love middle school is because it’s a turning point for students,” he said. “If we can really get the most out of them and change their mindset by the time they get to eighth grade, hopefully when they get to high school they’re set on the right path.”

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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