The Syracuse City School District is welcoming students back to a new school year this week. One of the district’s main goals this year is to reduce chronic absenteeism.
Staffers at Meachem Elementary School, along with Superintendent Anthony Davis, greeted children excited to begin the school year this week.
"Very excited about the new year and looking forward to a great start," Davis said.
One of the biggest goals of this upcoming year is to make sure that every child that is enrolled, actually makes it to class. About half the children in the district are chronically absent, meaning they miss at least 15 days of school a year.
Davis said the district is making some progress. 51.5% of students were chronically absent in the 2022-2023 school year. That figure dropped to 49.6% last year. Davis said the issue starts early.
“Kindergarten is probably the biggest part of the problem and then you start to create those habits,” Davis said. “So we're just working through all those pieces at every level actually to make sure the kids are here."
Davis says there’s no single reason for chronic absenteeism. Living in a city with a high poverty rate means one-quarter of the families move at least once during the school year, and many don’t have reliable transportation or child care.
So the district is starting an initiative called Show Up to Glow Up: Rise and Thrive. At the core of it is better communication with families. That means kids who didn’t show up the first day are already getting calls to find out why.
Shiela Gaughan is the primary years' program coordinator at Meachem and handles the social media end of things, posting information on the district’s Facebook page.
"The kids love being here. They want to be here,” said Gaughan. “Sometimes it's just a matter of getting them here."
The district emphasizes it's working with community partners to improve the situation. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh is on board.
"We need to do this as a community,” Walsh said. “The city is looking at how we can continue to improve transportation options. We've brought in the county because the county is where all of the human service funding flows through. And so they're at the table providing support."
Once all is said and done, Davis wants to see improvements from that 50% average.
"The goal is not to have any, but realistically, we're hoping to have at least a 20% improvement."
