Every day in school is critical. 

As a four-day school week, if a Garfield Re-2 student misses just two days a month, that is about 30 hours of math instruction and 60 hours of English Language Arts instruction that they are lost. 

“We know that the best indicator of student success is having a great teacher in front of students. We want all of our students in class if they are healthy,” said Assistant Superintendent Lisa Pierce, who facilitated the concerted effort by the District to support improved attendance.

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) released 2023-24 data on student attendance and chronic absenteeism this week. Statewide, student attendance increased by .7 percentage points to 91.5% in 2023-24 and rates of chronic absenteeism decreased by 3.4 percentage points declining from 31.1% in 2022-2023 to 27.7% in 2023-24.

Garfield Re-2 School District saw significant improvement in attendance across the board. Student attendance for 23-24 was up 2.1 percent from 92.1 percent to 94.2 percent significantly surpassing the state average. Truancy was down half a percent from 2.4 percent to 1.9 percent, and chronic absenteeism decreased 15 points (a 50 percent year-over-year reduction) from 29.8 percent to 13.9 percent, moving the district from above the state average to significantly below the state average. Chronically absent is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year. 

“The improvement in attendance is due to the hard work at each and every school,” said Pierce. “Each school has an attendance officer, and an attendance team.  They implemented the changes that we created together.”

Some of those changes include a specific communication process that principals use to let families know how much school their child has missed beginning with a letter of concern at eight absences. Schools provide “learning loss opportunities” for students who have missed considerable class time, and a new Student Attendance Review Board (SARB) provides wrap-around services for families that struggle with getting their children to school.

The goal in Garfield Re-2 is to reach and maintain a 95% student attendance rate, knowing that students should stay home if they are sick. Pierce said that 86% of the students who attended had significant improvement in their attendance.

“It’s really hard to teach a student that is not there,” she said. “We are trying to not only bring awareness to how many days a child misses, but also provide supports like tutoring and additional academic support to help them make up the content that they missed. The last resort is truancy court. That is the last place we turn.”

The Garfield Re-2 Attendance policies and practices are on the District’s website at https://www.garfieldre2.net/family-community/attendance.

In addition, the State of Colorado has launched the Every School Day Matters! attendance campaign focused on decreasing chronic absenteeism rates by 50% from the state’s pandemic high of 35.5% in 2021-22. Parents, families, educators, and community partners can visit http://www.cdeinfo.org/attendance for information and resources. State and district attendance and chronic absenteeism data, as well as truancy rates at the state, district, and school levels, are available on the CDE website.