A report released by the Colorado Department of Education Wednesday showed more than one in four Colorado students having been chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year – meaning they missed 10% or more of enrolled school days.
According to the report, statewide averages for 2024-25 showed daily attendance rates sitting at 91.4% – a decline of 0.1% from 2023-24 data – and chronic absenteeism clocking in at 28.4% – a 0.7% increase from 2023-24.
“Good attendance is a critical component for school and life success,” said Education Commissioner Susana Córdova in the report. “We are concerned to see attendance and chronic absenteeism rates moving in the wrong direction, particularly for our students of color.”
Data within the report illustrated rates of chronic absenteeism for students of color being between 6.2% and 30.1% higher than the absenteeism rates of their white peers. Chronic absenteeism rates for Latino students were reported at 38.4% – 10% above the state average.
These numbers are indicative of a wider downward trend related to attendance rates for historically disadvantaged groups and students of color.
Though the statewide report saw some setbacks, schools in the area reported mostly positive updates in attendance for 2024-25, after a previous dive in attendance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Durango School District’s chronic absenteeism rate for 2024-25 came in at 29.3%, according to CDE data.
“Durango School District is deeply committed to ensuring that every student attends school regularly, because we know that every day counts for long-term academic and social success,” said Vanessa Giddings, executive director of student support services at Durango School District.
She said the district has implemented a “comprehensive, multitiered Attendance Intervention System rooted in best practices and aligned with Colorado law” in order to keep attendance rates consistent.
Measures within the attendance intervention system include: communicating regularly with parents; recognizing students with good attendance rates; school attendance review teams closely following attendance numbers and identifying at-risk students; leadership conducting “empathy interviews” with students to better understand roadblocks to consistent attendance; and peer campaigns encouraging consistent attendance, Giddings said.
The district has seen a daily attendance rate of 95.61% within the first several weeks of the 2025-26 school year. This number is typical for the district, she said.
The Bayfield School District saw an overall chronic absenteeism rate of 36.25% for 2024-25, according to CDE data.
“Attendance has been a point of emphasis for us for some time now, and last year, we initiated a number of initiatives and programs across our schools to help address that and improve attendance, and we did have some success with it,” said Bob Bonnar, spokesperson for the Bayfield School District.
Some of these initiatives, he said, include incentives and rewards for perfect attendance and encouragement for students to participate in school activities outside regular classroom time to increase school connectivity.
The average chronic absenteeism rate for the Ignacio School District in 2024-25 was reported within CDE data as being at 40.9%.
“Attendance is a collaboration,” said Superintendent Christopher W. deKay. “We need support from the parents, and we have to work together to get kids to school. We realize last year that our attendance was slightly higher.”
He said measures to increase attendance include working on refining relevant systems within the school district overall, and working together with local leaders, such as Melvin Baker, chairman for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, to create and release content that encourages consistent attendance.
CDE data on Animas High saw a chronic absenteeism rate of 16.1% for 2024-25.
“Project-based learning demands presence and participation, and we communicate clearly and often with students and families to underscore that we want students actively engaged in their learning,” said Libby Cowles, interim director of enrollment and community outreach for Animas High.
She said attendance interventions include a block-system schedule, student-signed contracts at the beginning of each year, consistent parent and student communication, and a policy wherein a student cannot pass a course if they have missed more than 20% of overall class time.
According to CDE data, Mountain Middle School had a chronic absenteeism rate of 6.6% in 2024-25.
Shane Voss, executive director at Mountain Middle School, said numbers have significantly improved since the school implemented a new attendance policy in 2022 in response to COVID-19 causing a decline in attendance.
The attendance policy at Mountain Middle includes parent-signed forms being required for multiday absences; attendance contracts; adherence to Colorado school attendance policies; probation periods being implemented in response to 15 or more days of absences; and grade retention coming into effect after 25 absent days, he said.
“Right now we’re seeing our students scoring in the top 3% in ELA (English language arts) and math, and I think that’s attributed to the high attendance rate of our students,” Voss said. “A lot of what we do can’t be made up. We’re really focused on transformative learning experiences – exhibitions, group project work, Socratic seminars, mock trials ... those types of things.”
Córdova, during an online briefing about the 2024-25 results, echoed there being a disparity between statewide and local school results, with local trends looking a bit more positive – but that numbers on the whole are below what the Colorado Department of Education would like.
“While we did see some promising gains at the local level, our overall statewide rates for average daily attendance and chronic absenteeism, unfortunately, are moving in the wrong direction of what we had hoped to see,” she said.
epond@durangoherald.com
