Massachusetts struggling to get kids back to school after pandemic

State Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler is putting his face front and center as officials try to get more kids back into the classroom and overcome high absenteeism rates fueled by the pandemic.

Tutwiler appears in television and radio public service announcements, billboards, transit ads, emails and social media messages in a multilingual public outreach campaign geared at increasing attendance rates that officials launched last week.

“The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted a lot of routines including the habit of attending school everyday. Even now, students are missing more days of school than before,” Tutwiler says in a 30-second commercial. “But school can be a place to heal and grow, to be with friends, to have the support of a whole team of adults. Let’s work together to make attendance a priority. After all, school is where kids belong.”

Campaign messages refer the public to resources offered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to combat chronic absenteeism — defined by at least 10% of days in a school year missed for any reason.

Chronic absenteeism across Massachusetts increased by 72% from 2019 to 2023, state figures show. The percentage did drop from 28% at the pandemic peak to 22% last school year as the recovery continues, but officials say too many students are still not showing up everyday.

“While students should stay home when they’re sick, regular attendance should be as much a part of students’ lives as it was before the pandemic,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a release. “We’re proud to launch this ad campaign to spread the word about resources available to families and schools to help get kids back into the classroom.”

High rates of absenteeism have been tied to risks of lower literacy and reduced academic achievement and graduation, among others. The measurable impact of the rise is “startling,” officials have said.

Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS, exam scores broadly reflect a wide gap between chronically absent students and others, Curtin said. On the 2023 English MCAS exam for grades three to eight, for instance, 46% of non-chronically absent students and only 25% of chronically absent students met or exceeded expectations, figures show.

The new public outreach campaign coincides with a $4 million recovery initiative, funded with the education department’s remaining federal COVID relief allotment, to address the issue.

Participating districts and educational collaboratives are using $10,000 each from the state to create or strengthen family engagement and student tracking and monitoring programs, among other efforts.

“Absenteeism is really a manifestation of an unmet need,” Tutwiler said in a release. “We need to work with students and families to understand the barriers to attending school they’re facing — and remind them that when students aren’t in the classroom, they’re missing out on much more than their education,”

Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley in November proposed increasing the weight of chronic absenteeism in the district and school accountability system “to highlight the importance and urgency of the issue.”

The accountability system uses targets for attendance, MCAS scores, graduation rates, transportation and other metrics to evaluate districts’ performance and direct funding.

Attendance is currently weighted at 10% of districts’ scores, but officials said the weighting could shift to prioritize the problem area. Federal requirements mandate a high level of focus on measures of achievement and growth.

“Chronic absenteeism affects almost three-quarters of the schools in our state,” Riley said in a release. “No matter where we’re from — rural, suburban or urban districts — we’re in this together as one community,”