Expand efforts to keep Minnesota students in school

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Annual statewide student scores released last week showed that Minnesota students didn’t lose any educational ground over the previous year. Still, the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) scores for 2024, reported by the Minnesota Department of Education, remained essentially flat, with roughly 50% of students scoring at or above grade-level proficiency in reading and math.

This obviously registers as a disappointing outcome in a state that has long prided itself on educational excellence.

Yet one encouraging sign from the data stood out: There was an increase in the number of students who regularly attended school, an indication that attendance is beginning to bounce back after historic post-pandemic lows. Schools and districts should continue to dig deep into effective anti-absenteeism strategies to get kids back in class. Attendance is the key to improving overall student achievement and boosting test scores.

The number of chronically absent students — defined as those missing more than 10% of the school year — rose dramatically after the pandemic. During the 2021-2022 school year, only about 69% of state students were in class at least 90% of the time; in 2022-23 that figure rose to about 75%. Attendance is moving in the right direction but still requires more attention.

In 2022-2023, roughly 1 in 4 of Minnesota’s 870,000 public school children were chronically absent. And 60 of the state’s 325 independent school districts had attendance rates that were consistently below 50%.

To combat the problem, many districts are now wisely involved in attendance intervention programs to determine exactly why kids don’t go to school. The reasons can be as varied as the kids — absenteeism is no longer simply a case of truant students skipping school to hang out with friends.

For some children being absent involves a continued struggle with the effects of COVID-related school closures; for others it can be mental health or substance abuse issues. Transportation can also be a problem for some families, and in other cases, stressed-out parents approve of older kids staying home to care for younger siblings.

Some of the efforts to get kids back in the classroom involve reaching out and building better relationships. One such program is the Check and Connect strategy that matches students with adult mentors. Anoka-Hennepin Superintendent Cory McIntyre told the Minnesota Star Tribune that about 70% of students who participated in that program have improved their attendance.

“This is still a challenge and it’s still something we have to do a lot better at,” McIntyre said. “We have a lot of hope [that attendance will improve] if we can just really double down and try to get as many students involved as we can.”

Some districts are hiring social workers or designated staff to reach out to missing students. That personal contact matters. In addition, about a dozen school districts across Minnesota meet monthly as part of pilot program to share ideas on boosting attendance. The Legislature has also created a work group to remain tightly focused on the issue.

Minnesota is not alone in the ongoing battle against chronic student absenteeism, which is occurring across the country. According to data collected by the Associated Press and Stanford University educational economist Thomas Dee, about 25% of students — roughly 12 million children — were chronically absent during the 2022-2023 year in 42 states and Washington, D.C.

Some schools have leaned into creativity to get kids back into school. A Fresno, Calif., middle school, for example, bought a washer and dryer for families and an additional school vehicle. Why? Two reasons children routinely offered to officials for missing class were dirty laundry and limited transportation. In Oakland, district leaders went a step further and used private grant funds to pay students a small weekly stipend for perfect attendance.

These are just two examples of educators reaching out to families to determine barriers to attendance and working to overcome them.

As state Education Commissioner Willie Jett put it: “It’s going to take social workers and counselors and families, and people all throughout the communities, to come together to talk about the importance of attendance in school.”