Student attendance improving, RCSD officials say

The Rochester City School District has seen an overall improvement in attendance, absenteeism, suspensions, and instructional priorities in the city’s elementary schools, district officials say.

At a Feb. 11 RCSD board meeting, Rhonda Morien and Brenda Torres-Santana, chiefs of schools with the district, said daily average attendance across all elementary schools this year has risen by 2 percentage points, from 82 to 84 percent, compared to last year. In addition, the proportion of students with chronic absenteeism has fallen below 50 percent, and suspensions are well below the previous school year as of early February.

The school chiefs credited school culture changes with driving this improvement, particularly by using techniques with positive reinforcement.

“There are interventions that need to be in place, but we also want to celebrate the students who show up every day,” said Torres-Santana.

“There’s schoolwide celebrations that take place to ensure that kids are celebrated who attend school,” she added. “We’re making sure we’re giving them shout-outs and giving them the awards that they need because they are doing a good job in being there and we want them to be represented.”

Parent representative Monica Graham echoed this sentiment.

“I know we talk about absenteeism and the children that aren’t coming, but sometimes our children face insurmountable obstacles to even step through that door,” she said. “So, to celebrate them and just know that they’re doing the work is great.”

Steps also have been taken to make physical space for celebration as well. Student work “bright spots” are displayed, along with success criteria and clear learning expectations and “Bump it up” boards, which demonstrate how to get closer to the next grade level standard.

Currently, 57 percent of teachers have clear learning intentions or success criteria and 61 percent are showing evidence of student writing that is standards-based. These are both figures the school chiefs are encouraged by, but also want to improve before the end of the school year.

By making school a positive place with clear expectations and activities to look forward to, the school chiefs say, these other measurable outcomes will improve. 

“Working on establishing quality instruction and engaging cultures means there’s going to be less discipline challenges,” explained Morien. “We do think that impacts suspensions even with every school doing something different around how they reduce suspensions.”

Montessori Academy School No. 53, for example, holds a pep rally at the beginning of the school year and has a check in/check out system with adults when attendance meetings are held. John James Audubon School No. 33 hosted the mayor for a special reading visit. Roberto Clemente School No. 8 uses its Pillars of Hope program, which brings in volunteers who serve as positive role models.

RCSD’s current goal is to reduce the number of suspensions by 10 percent districtwide. In the 2023-24 school year, there were 1,706 suspensions across the 24 elementary schools, meaning the target for this year is 1,536. So far, there have been 445 recorded suspensions. 

“We really don’t want to suspend. We need to have the students in front of an instructor so that they can learn and walk away with the learning success criteria each day,” Torres-Santana said.

The data presented at the meeting show about 4,000 elementary students have been recorded as chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year, meaning they have missed 10 percent of the academic year, or about 18 days of school.

That figure represents 47 percent of all elementary school students and is concentrated among students classified as economically disadvantaged.

Located on Upper Falls Boulevard, Abraham Lincoln School No. 22 had by far the highest proportion of chronically absent students—266 of the school’s 403 students, or 66 percent, fell into that category.

The school has generally maintained its average daily attendance, however, dropping very slightly compared with last year (from 79.6 percent to 79.5 percent). School No. 22 also has yet to record a suspension this year. (It did not in the 2023-24 school year either.)

The Children’s School of Rochester No. 15 and Francis Parker School No. 23, located near Cobb’s Hill and Park Avenue, respectively, had the lowest proportion of chronically absent students. Both schools had 88 students recorded in that category, representing 29 percent and 30 percent of their student populations.

Those two schools also have among the best daily attendance records, jumping from an already strong 88 percent last year to 90 percent so far this year.

They do not have similar records when it comes to suspensions, however. While School No. 15 has not reported a suspension this year, School No. 23 has had 21. In order to reach its goal of reducing suspensions by 10 percent, School No. 23 will need to have 29 or fewer at the end of the year.

“You have all done tremendous work around suspensions,” said Commissioner Cynthia Elliott. “I go back to when I started campaigning 20 years ago where there were 14,000 suspensions for the middle school, which primarily were Black boys, so I am just so excited at the progress we’re having.”

Commissioner Beatriz LeBron-Harris saw reason for caution and understanding during a chaotic political time. With the uncertainty around federal education and immigration policy, she predicted that attendance will be even more difficult for some families.

“In the last two weeks alone I’ve dealt with 11 children from this district who their school didn’t even know they were homeless,” LeBron-Harris said. “What I’m finding is families don’t always want to share their business with the school. They may not feel comfortable and there’s shame or there’s fear that child protective services could be called because there’s no safe or stable place to go for them.

“As a district, we have one of the largest amounts of refugee population because there are no other programs like the Rochester International Academy. We’re going to see even more students not coming to school because of fear of ICE and that’s just reality,” she continued. “I cannot stress ‘business as usual’ with the craziness that’s happening now.”

A presentation on attendance, absenteeism, suspensions, and instructional priorities in RCSD’s middle and high schools is scheduled for next month.

Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist. 

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