The COVID-19 pandemic sent shock waves through the education system when it swept across the United States in spring 2020, reshaping classrooms and disrupting learning nationwide.
Discussions about mask mandates, remote learning and educators’ approaches to the pandemic resonated throughout Southwest Colorado. But as the pandemic fades into the background, students and educators continue to grapple with its lasting effects. One of the most significant consequences has been the rise in chronic absenteeism across school districts.
In Colorado, the Department of Education defines chronic absenteeism as when a student misses 10% or more of school days. The 10% factors applies to excused and unexcused absences.
Ignacio School District struggled immensely with chronic absenteeism, posting a rate of 60% in 2021, meaning 60% of the student body missed 10% or more of school days.
The small district in southeastern La Plata County has recently made progress, reducing its chronic absenteeism rate to about 40%. Durango School District 9-R has successfully reduced its chronic absenteeism rate from 34% in 2021 to 27% for the 2023-24 school year.
For 9-R, if a student misses 17 school days of school, they are considered chronically absent; in Ignacio, it’s 15 days.
Bayfield School District did not immediately provide updated data for this story, but officials have indicated the district is experiencing similar trends.
Statewide, more than 241,000 Colorado students – more than one in four – were chronically absent last school year, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
“We work hard to have meetings with parents and to get to the root cause of the problem,” said Ignacio School District Superintendent Chris deKay. “We’re not only looking at what we can do better as a school district, but what parents can do and also try to find resources for families.”
Educators agree that chronic absenteeism is a multifaceted issue and districts can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. There could be a multitude of reasons why a kid doesn’t want to attend school, deKay said.
Durango School District 9-R put forth a significant amount of resources to find solutions to the problem, including surveys administered to parents and students.
“Sometimes we have students who are really perfectionistic, and if they don’t think they’re going to pass a test, they will not go to that class,” said 9-R Director of Student Services Vanessa Giddings.
However, a student’s truancy is often linked to socioeconomic factors.
“I would say sometimes we have families who have barriers, where youth are caretaking for siblings, or youth are engaged in working to provide for their family and our community, because our community is really hard to live in,” Giddings said.
Cost of living is a subject that has negatively impacted multiple sectors in La Plata County.
According to Region 9 Economic Development District’s 2022 livable wage report, the livable wage for a married adult with two children is $20.55 per hour. For a single parent with one child, however, that figure rises significantly to $32.28 per hour.
In Bayfield and Ignacio, a two-income household fares slightly better, with each adult needing to earn $19.73 per hour to live affordably with two children. However, single parents face a much heavier burden, needing to make $30.65 per hour to afford living with just one child.
deKay said Ignacio School District works in partnership with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe truancy team and La Plata Youth Services to get to the root of the problem.
Outside of socioeconomic issues, sometimes a student’s truancy has to do with insecurities about learning gaps brought on by the pandemic.
“A kid over the course of the pandemic didn’t have as much growth, and so now they’re a little more behind,” deKay said.
But while it’s easy to focus on the negative, La Plata County school districts have found success in celebrating students who have superb attendance.
“Our high school is celebrating perfect attendance monthly, instead of (by the year),” said Bayfield School District spokesman Bob Bonnar.
He said engaging students in extracurricular activities often increases the likelihood of them staying in school.
Ignacio and Durango school districts have also tried to celebrate good attendance.
“We have ‘Character Counts’ assemblies where we honor and recognize kids,” deKay said. “We try to hit it from both angles.”
Giddings said 9-R avoids punitive approaches, as research has shown they are generally ineffective. For the district, it’s about creating a sense of belonging.
“These other systems, where it’s very punitive, it’s like, ‘Where were you? Why weren’t you here? You’re all behind now.’ It’s really framing things in a very different way when we are pointing fingers and blaming people. We know those strategies are not going to work with humans,” Giddings said.
As a school district, 9-R focuses on student agency, engagement and connection in the learning environment. It does this through promoting its Portrait of a Graduate standards, project-based learning, personalized pathways and engaging students in meaningful learning experiences.
Much like Ignacio, 9-R takes a hands-on approach with parents when they notice a student trending toward that 10% absent mark.
“It’s really not a one-size-fits-all approach, but we call it a cured approach,” Giddings said. “We have kind of this universal response of creating this great learning environment, where kids feel welcome. Then we have these personalized interventions, and then a third level is having these more intensive community-based supports and resources.”
Ensuring that parents recognize the seriousness of chronic absenteeism is also a key priority for the districts.
Bonnar said he notices more absences in Bayfield School District during hunting season.
“That’s our district’s focus right now, is to work with families to make them want their kids to be in the building more and understanding at times, families are going to take kids out of school, and we don’t really have to understand why,” Bonnar said.
Giddings said parents are also struggling to understand when to send their kids to school if they are sick. Public safety messaging during the pandemic has left some wondering when it’s OK to send a student to school if they have cold symptoms.
“We’ve also had to do a lot of work with families around the guidance around how sick is too sick,” Giddings said.
During the pandemic, health care professionals urged the public to stay home if they felt sick. Now, students seem to be using that advice as a reason to skip class, even for minor illnesses.
“If they have a sniffle or their parents are a little concerned, send them anyway and they can check in in the morning at the health office, and the health office will determine if they need to go home,” Giddings said.
She stressed the importance of students attending school, noting that once they hit the 10% absence threshold, they face a significant risk of falling behind, which can lead to a downward spiral and potentially not graduating from high school.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
