Data collected by the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) shows statewide rates of student attendance have risen between the current school year and the previous one. However, attendance rates remain below levels from the 2019-2020 school year across all student groups whose attendance the department tracks.
Across all students statewide, the attendance rate for the current school year through December 2023 was 93.3 percent, up from 92.6 percent the previous year. Attendance peaked at 94.8 percent during the 2019-2020 school year, when data collection first began. The CSDE began collecting monthly data on student attendance in September 2020, after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the 2019-2020 school year, the CSDE’s calculation of attendance included only in-person school days through mid-March of that year, when schools began closing due to the pandemic. For all subsequent years, calculation of attendance includes both in-person and remote learning days.
For December 2023, attendance was highest amongst students without high needs. In December 2023, the attendance rate for that group was 95.1 percent, up from 94.6 percent the previous year and still falling below a 96.1 percent attendance rate during the 2019-2020 school year. For all student groups whose attendance rate is documented by the data, students without high needs are the only group whose attendance rose between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. The attendance rate for that group rose to 96.4 percent during the latter year.
The data shows students experiencing homelessness not only had a lower pre-pandemic attendance rate than other groups whose attendance rate the CDSE has measured but has also recovered more slowly than other groups. During the 2019-2020 school year, attendance for students experiencing homelessness was 88.8 percent. The attendance rate dropped to 80.4 percent the following school year and stands at 85.3 percent for the current school year to date.
Other students groups whose attendance rates the data measures include students with high needs, whose attendance rate through December 2023 was 93.3 percent; English learners, whose attendance rate through December 2023 was 92 percent; students with disabilities, who had a 90.9 percent attendance rate through December 2023; and students who are eligible for free and reduced price meals. Students eligible for free meals had a 90.9 percent attendance rate and students eligible for reduced price meals had a 93.6 percent attendance rate.
The CSDE’s data also tracked chronic absenteeism by the same student groups. Across all students statewide, the rate of chronic absenteeism was 18.6 for the current school year through December 2023. That number is down from 20 percent the previous year but above the 12.2 percent rate recorded in 2019-2020. Across all student groups, students without high needs had the lowest levels of chronic absenteeism—11.1 percent for the current school year to date. That number increased from the previous school year’s rate of 10.2 percent and remains above the 5.9 percent rate of chronic absenteeism for the group in 2019-2020.
As a group, students experiencing homelessness had the highest rate of chronic absenteeism pre-pandemic and continue to have a higher rate than other groups. For the 2019-2020 school year, the rate of chronic absenteeism for the group was 40.9 percent, roughly 20 points higher than students with disabilities, whose 20.8 percent chronic absenteeism rate was the second highest for that school year. For the current school year, the rate of chronic absenteeism among students experiencing homelessness is 45.8 percent. The group with the next highest rate of chronic absenteeism for the current school year is students eligible for free meals at 28.3 percent.
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