By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — One in 10 Westport students — some 536 students — were deemed chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, according to a report released by the state this week.

That is better than the year before, when 11.6 percent of Westport students missed at least 10 percent of the school year, which is the state’s definition of chronic absenteeism, but still more than double the 4.6 percent recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2018-19.

Statewide, 20 percent of students — or 100,000 — were deemed chronically absent in the last school year, better than 23.7 percent posted in 2021-22, but still double the 10.4 percent reported in 2018-19.

Statewide, improvement was seen at all grade levels and in all groups of students.

Locally, the progress was seen at most, but not all, grade levels and in some groups.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice and Board of Education Chairwoman Lee Goldstein, in separate emails, said they have not yet looked at the state attendance report, so had no comment.

Westport’s 10 percent 2023-23 chronic absenteeism rate is slightly better than Fairfield’s 10.8 and Greenwich’s 10.7, but more than Wilton’s 5.6, Weston’s 7.6 and Darien’s 4.5 percent. In Norwalk, 21.1 percent of students were chronically absent in the last school year, while in Stamford the rate was 22.5 percent. (Click for the full list of statewide statistics on school absenteeism rates.)

Westport school officials, however, have taken steps over the past year to make students want to come to school.

A 2022 school climate survey conducted by the school district found that only one-third of secondary students said they feel connected to adults at school. Only half felt a sense of belonging, and fewer than half would rate their school’s climate favorably.

As a result, a concerted effort was made in the first month of the 2022-23 school year to forge connections between staff and students as a way to make them want to come to school and engage.

That effort, woven into the district’s strategic plan, is being repeated this year, according to school officials.

The state places importance on attendance, deeming it an essential pre-requisite for learning. Absences for any reason factor into the count.

While still unacceptably high, it’s hoped the decline in the statewide absentee rate is the beginning of a new trend that also bolsters an academic recovery, state Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said in a written statement.

“It is incumbent upon all of us to use these and other data to effectively foster innovation and create learning environments that empower students to realize their infinite possibilities and boundless potential.”

It’s not easy work, added Ajit Gopalakrishnan, chief performance officer for the state Department of Education.

Nationwide, absenteeism rates spiked during the pandemic as well, and has continued as students returned to in-person instruction.

Between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years, the share of students chronically nationwide absent grew by 13.5 percentage points, according to state officials.

State education consultant Kari Sullivan-Custer said, as the latest report was released, the Education Department had surveyed over 5,000 Connecticut families regarding absences to learn why absentee rates are still twice as high as before the pandemic. 

Responding families said illness was a leading factor for keeping their students at home, followed by mental health and family obligations.

“We asked the [families] ‘What can we do to help you in attendance so students go back to school?’ and the No. 1 reason is [to make] students feel like they’re part of the school community. … Frequent engagement with professionals will help students. … [And] ensuring that other families are keeping kids home so illnesses don’t spread, help with language barriers, engaging classroom settings, … are good approaches to reducing chronic absence in our schools,” Sullivan-Custer said. 

“This work requires a mindset shift, moving from a punitive-sort-of-truancy approach to a chronic absenteeism approach where we get to the root cause of why our students aren’t coming to school,” she added.

With additional reporting by the Connecticut Mirror.

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Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.