Summit School District officials are continuing to highlight student attendance as a top priority for the 2023-24 school year. 

During an Oct. 19 Summit Board of Education meeting, principals for Breckenridge Elementary School and Summit High School said while there are promising signs for increasing attendance over last school year, doing so will take a major effort from students, teachers and staff. 

“We have seen a dip in the last few weeks, and it hurts,” said Summit High School Co-Principal Doug Blake. “It’s nothing we’re ignoring. We’re trying to dig into this data at a level we’ve never gotten into.” 

At the beginning of this school year, district leadership pledged to improve attendance after data from the 2022-23 school year showed roughly one-third of all students were considered chronically absent. The term, defined by the Colorado Department of Education, refers to a student whose absences have exceeded 10% of the academic year, which usually translates to 17 or 18 school days. 

While the data did include excused absences, such as for students sport’s game or health appointment, it stoked concern among district officials who’ve been pushing for solutions. Such efforts include pay increases for school bus drivers in a bid to avoid consolidating routes and limiting which students can get a ride as well as a recently-launched, district-wide campaign to encourage better attendance. 

But improving outcomes for attendance will also require understanding the root causes of chronic absences, officials said. 

“We’ve added a couple codes to our attendance system to understand (that) absent doesn’t just mean absent. We’re trying to dig in, tie tardies to that as well,” Blake said. “And really honing in on which kids aren’t there and why.”

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Blake said school officials have put an emphasis on hearing from students, adding that advisory teachers in classrooms are speaking with students whose attendance falls below 90% to understand the reasons. 

“We’re getting the feedback from the students’ mouths on why they’re not here, and then we’re getting the data to really tie it together,” Blake said. 

Attendance has dipped most amongst older grader levels, with data showing that last school year, attendance decreased from 91.3% in Kindergarten to 85.1% in 12th grade. According to Co-Principal Brittny Acres, the high school this year has so far seen attendance in the “high-80s, mid-80s.”

Of the roughly 1,150-student school, about 62% of students have 90% or higher attendance, “so we do have some students that are doing well,” Acres added. 

But it “takes a good amount of time to really dig into the ‘why?'” Acres said. “To get to the root cause and meet with (students), meet with their families and really address the barriers. It’s hard work, but it’s the good work. That’s what we’re working on.” 

At Breckenridge Elementary, Principal Ann-Mari Westerhoff said the attendance rate has improved from last school year, but chronic absences persist. 

In 2022-23, attendance sat at 91%, which Westerhoff said initially appeared to be “not that bad, but then I found out that that meant 36.6% of our students were chronically absent.”

“I thought, ‘Wow, we need some attention to this,” added Westerhoff, who said attendance so far this year has increased to 96%.

Board member Johanna Kugler credited Westerhoff with identifying, among other things, attendance as an area where more work can be done. 

“I like that you have said, ‘I thought we had great attendance,’ and you took data that was there and was presented to you and you’re making changes,” she said.