As the number of Louisiana students who frequently miss school grows, the state Department of Education has unveiled a new strategy for bringing them back.

The new guidelines released this week, called “The Power of Presence,” focus on district and community-level prevention and intervention efforts, rather than punitive measures, to improve attendance. They come as Louisiana’s absenteeism rate has risen the past two school years.

The 31-page guidebook also offers standard definitions of chronic absenteeism, which is when students miss 10% or more of a school year, and truancy to create consistency across school districts. It also emphasizes consistent data collection and reporting so that districts can better track at-risk students.

Some suggested interventions to promote student wellbeing and boost attendance include providing weekend food bags for students dealing with food insecurity, creating a closet with spare clothes for children whose families struggle to afford school uniforms, and encouraging students to join after-school activities.

While schools aren’t required to adopt the strategies, the framework is intended to give districts evidence-based solutions to combat poor attendance, which research has linked to numerous negative outcomes, including lower test scores, poor grades and a higher likelihood of becoming involved in the criminal justice system, education leaders said.

“We are facing a real and urgent challenge,” Sharon Clark, a member of the state education board, said during an annual teacher conference in New Orleans organized by the state education department. “Students are missing too much school, and we are feeling the impact.”

Even as Louisiana climbs in national education rankings, it was one of just five states out of 36 that have released data where absenteeism rates grew during the 2023-24 school year, according to information compiled by FutureEd, a Georgetown University think tank. Last year, nearly 1 in 4 Louisiana students was classified as chronically absent, up three percentage points from the previous year, state data shows.

“Louisiana is the only state in the country where the average student has made” a full academic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said. “But that growth has been minimized by attendance and truancy issues.”

Louisiana’s goal is to reduce absenteeism by 2% annually, officials said. If it achieves that goal, nearly 45,000 fewer children will be considered chronically absent by the 2027-28 school year.

While the framework gives districts flexibility to tailor strategies to their needs, it includes a handful of “universal elements” each school system’s attendance plan should include. Those key strategies include creating partnerships with community organizations, such as churches and local government agencies; keeping families engaged in their children’s education; and forming attendance teams at the school and district level that help track data and coordinate efforts

The guidelines draw on findings from a program piloted by Baker High School two years ago that aimed to drive down absenteeism using simple strategies, such as sending letters home when students rack up absences and checking in with at-risk students to find out why they’re missing school and discuss solutions. After one year, the district saw its share of chronically absent students fall 13 percentage points, to 37%.

While many districts already employ some of the methods the state is encouraging, the new guidelines are the most comprehensive set to date and should lead to more uniformity across the state, said Misty Davis, executive director of attendance strategy at the state education department.

By asking every district to use the same language when talking about attendance, it makes it easier for the state to collect and analyze submitted data, Davis explained. For example, the guidelines make clear when schools should label student absences as excused or unexcused in data systems, she said.

State education department staffers will work with districts that continue to struggle with attendance and help them adopt some of the suggested strategies, officials said. 

“This is getting everybody on the same page,” Davis said, “about how we do it and what it looks and sounds like.”