Schools across the country saw students chronically absent post-pandemic, with New Mexico one of the hardest hit. However, the state Public Education Department recently reported a significant decrease in students missing school last year.
Students who miss 10% or more of school, which amounts to about 18 days, are chronically absent. These absences include any days missed either for illness or another reason.
During the 2022-23 school year over 39% of students were in this category. But for the most recent school year, NMPED is now reporting a significant decline to about 32%.
Deputy Education Secretary Candice Castillo said, this is a complex issue with no one-size-fits-all solution. Rather it’s about working with individual school districts to learn their specific needs since repeated absences can hurt a student’s academic success.
“They increase their risk of falling behind academically, they increase their risk of not graduating from high school, there’s also a lot of research that when students start missing that many days, their social emotional health can get compromised” said Castillo.
Castillo says that the department’s goal is to get attendance rates where they were pre-pandemic if not better. This comes as the state has seen little improvement over the last few years.
Castillo added that the decline the state is seeing now is due to several factors. That includes about $5 million in funding from the Legislature to support the state’s seven largest school districts, as well as PED providing more technical assistance to support schools’ attendance improvement plans.
Also, Castillo credits the new ‘Be Here NM’ campaign’ that focuses on bringing awareness to strong communication between parents and schools with tools and resources to support attendance efforts.
NMPED also plans to hold a New Mexico State Attendance Conference in late October that will bring together over 400 school professionals and community members to talk about strategies for getting students engaged in learning.
Find more information at KUNM.org. This coverage is made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners.
