US Schools Use Money, Fun, Support to Get Students to Class

01Florentine Jean-Baptiste missed school so often that he had to repeat his first year at Medford High School near Boston.

02Jean-Baptiste said, At school, you do the same thing every day.

03He was absent 30 days in his first year.

04Then the principal of the school did something different.

05She let students play organized sports during lunch.

06If they attended all their classes.

07In other words, she offered high school students a play period that is usually part of the school day for young children.

08It gave me something to look forward to, said 16-year-old Jean-Baptiste.

09The following year, he cut his absences in half.

10Schoolwide, the share of regularly absent students dropped from 35% in March 2023 to 23% in March 2024.

11That was one of the biggest reductions among Massachusetts high schools.

12The Associated Press and Stanford University economist Thomas D.

13have studied attendance numbers from 42 states and Washington, D.C.

14They found that years after the school closings from the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in nearly every state are still struggling with attendance.

15About one in four students in the 2022-23 school year were chronically absent.

16That means they missed at least 10% of the school year.

17That number represents about 12 million children in states' reporting numbers of absent students.

18Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed school that often.

19After spending as much as a year at home during the pandemic, many children see school as more than they can handle, uninteresting or socially stressful.

20Some children and parents are deciding it is no problem to stay home.

21That makes completing classwork even harder.

22In all but one state, Arkansas, absence rates remain higher than they were before the pandemic.

23Still, the problem appears to have passed its highest point.

24Almost every state saw absenteeism go down at least a little during the two full school years ending in 2023.

25Schools are trying to identify students with attendance problems so they can help.

26They are also trying to communicate better with parents.

27Some parents might not know their child is missing a lot of school or its effects on their performance.

28Experts say schools must get creative to meet their students' needs.

29In Oakland, California, chronic absenteeism in public schools sharply rose from 29% before the pandemic to 53% during the 2022-23 school year.

30Officials asked students what would make them want to come to class.

31They answered money and a mentor.

32In spring 2023, the Oakland School District received a grant to pay 45 students $50 weekly to attend school every day.

3360% of those in the program improved their attendance.

34Zaya Vera is the district's head of social-emotional learning.

35Vera said, paying students cannot continue for a long time, but many absent students lacked dependable housing or were helping to support their families.

36The money is the hook that got them in the door.

37A caring teacher made a difference for 18-year-old Golden Tachikin.

38She completed her studies at Oakland's Skyline High School this spring.

39Coming back to school after the pandemic, she felt lost and anxious.

40She later realized those feelings made her feel physically sick.

41She was absent at least 25 days that year.

42One Afro-Latina teacher seemed to understand her culturally and made Tachikin feel she belonged in class.

43Tachikin already received good grades.

44In Massachusetts, Medford High School requires administrators to welcome and talk with students each morning, especially those who miss a lot of class.

45Many of the reasons given for students missing school early in the pandemic are still in place.

46They include financial difficulty, transportation problems, mild illness, and mental health struggles.

47For example, a study from the University of Southern California said parents reported that almost one-fourth of chronically absent students had emotional or behavioral problems compared with just seven percent of those with good attendance.

48At Fresno's Fort Miller Middle School, half of the students were chronically absent.

49Two reasons kept coming up, dirty clothing and no transportation.

50The school bought a washer and dryer for families to use.

51It also provided a vehicle to pick up students who missed the bus.

52Fresno's chronic absenteeism improved to 35 percent during the school year ending in 2023.

53Fourteen-year-old Melinda Gonzalez missed the school bus about once a week.

54So, she called for rides from the school vehicle.

55I don't have a car.

56My parents couldn't drive me to school, Gonzalez said.

57Getting that ride made a big difference.

58I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

59And I'm Jill Robbins.