At some Cumberland County schools, more than half of students are chronically absent. Here’s what that means

Ask any public school staffer in Cumberland County, and they’ll tell you — the kids are not alright. 

The kids are so not alright, in fact, that according to Cumberland County Schools Social Work Coordinator Pamela Story, 31.93% of the county’s public school students were chronically absent in the 2023-2024 school year. North Carolina state law defines chronic absenteeism as missing at least 10% of the days for which a student is enrolled in a public school, provided they have been enrolled for at least 10 school days that year.

A CityView analysis of North Carolina Dept. of Public Instruction reports for all of Cumberland County’s 88 public schools (including charter schools The Capitol Encore Academy and Alpha Academy) found that 34 of those schools, or about 38%, reported chronic absenteeism rates higher than the 2022-2023 county average. Furthermore, 62 schools, or about 70%, have higher chronic absenteeism rates than the statewide chronic absenteeism average of 26.73%.

According to CityView’s analysis, the 10 highest chronic absenteeism rates in Cumberland County’s public schools were:

Data provided by myFutureNC, a nonprofit focusing on educational goals throughout North Carolina, shows Cumberland County isn’t alone in this struggle. According to myFutureNC’s webpage on chronic absenteeism, the past six years have been grim for the Tar Heel state, with 2023’s absenteeism rate representing a roughly 12% jump from 2018. MyFutureNC’s goal is to reduce North Carolina’s chronic absenteeism rate to 11% by 2030, but that would require 245,469 more students improving their attendance, according to the nonprofit.

Chronic absenteeism has also grown across the country. According to a chronic absenteeism tracker by Return 2 Learn, a dashboard that pulls data from school districts, the national average has increased from 15% in 2018 to 28% in 2022. Experts in the world of education say the Covid-19 pandemic is partially responsible for that trend. 

Nat Malkus, a researcher with the American Enterprise Institute, noted in a January study that all 50 states have seen an increase in chronic absenteeism rates since the start of the pandemic. However, the pandemic cannot be pointed to as the sole source of the issue, Malkus warned. 

“Even pre-COVID, the data on chronic absenteeism were troubling: One 2012 study estimated that, each year, between 5 and 7.5 million of the roughly 50 million students in pre-K-12 schools were chronically absent,” Malkus wrote. “Several analyses noted that low-income students, minority students, and students with disabilities were more likely to be chronically absent than were wealthier, white, or nondisabled students.” 

Malkus estimated that should public schools’ chronic absenteeism rates continue to decline at the same pace, school systems won’t return to pre-pandemic rates until about 2030. That estimate prompted three groups — the American Enterprise Institute, the Education Trust and Attendance Works — to host a meeting in Washington, D.C., last week to announce an ambitious goal: halve the national chronic absenteeism rate by 2029, as The 74 reported.

Should that plan fail, the consequences could be felt for years by millions of families. Researchers have tied chronic absenteeism to lower standardized test scores, behavioral problems and negative impacts on academic performance.

‘Very concerning’

Beverly Young, a truancy support specialist for Cumberland County Schools, told CityView the district has noted a spike in attendance issues in recent years. 

“Since the pandemic, there’s been a dramatic change with attendance for the kids to transition back to in-person learning,” she said.

That has continued to be a problem for Cumberland County’s public schools, Story said. 

“It’s a cause for alarm,” she told CityView. “ … It’s very concerning to us here in Cumberland County. The number of disengaged students that we have is just amazing.” 

Young estimates she can make up to 15 visits a week to the homes of students struggling with absenteeism. According to Story and Young, the general process in Cumberland County Schools for absences is:

1. When a student misses a class, the teacher records the absence in the school’s attendance software. This triggers a phone call home to the student’s parent or guardian.
2. If a student misses three days without a note from a parent or guardian, the teacher will call home. If that call is unsuccessful, the school social worker will try to contact a parent or guardian through any means necessary, including social media and reaching out to the student’s emergency contact. The social worker will also send a letter home.
3. When a student reaches six unexcused absences, the school social worker will send a letter home.
4. If a student exceeds 10 unexcused absences, their parent or guardian may be referred to the Cumberland County Schools’ Truancy Mediation Council or referred to the district attorney’s office. Parents and guardians can be charged with a misdemeanor at this point.

Young said the Truancy Mediation Council has proven successful in mitigating absenteeism.

“We’ve had several [children], they have finished the school year, did well on their EOGs [End of Grade examinations], their attendance improved,” she said. “I’ve had several social workers come up to me the last week of school and say, ‘Thank you for TMC [Truancy Mediation Council]. The child returned and had a good relationship with the parent and we planned for the summer.’” 

The council can provide families access to additional resources, like applying for food stamps through the county health department or working with a county social worker, Young said. 

According to Story and Young, improving student attendance must be a “collaborative” effort. That includes community members, Young said. 

“The community can encourage that parent and remind them that every minute counts that your child is in school,” she said. “The community, if they see kids roaming around and not in school, then they need to ask a child, ‘Why aren’t you in school? What’s going on?’ They can contact the school. We’ve had many people call.” 

The county’s public schools are shifting from punitive measures to more proactive measures, Story said. That’s partially because of a desire to better address the complex nature of factors that can lead to chronic absenteeism, she said.

“Since the pandemic, we have students who have gone to work. We have teen moms and teen dads,” she said. “ … We’re hearing some students have to stay home and care for ill parents or babysit younger siblings. We have a serious transportation issue here in Fayetteville.” 

Families have also been more reluctant since the Covid-19 pandemic to send children to school if they have minor symptoms like a headache or the sniffles, Story added. 

“Back in the day, you said you were sick, you had to be home, in the bed sick,” she said.

And as with many issues involving education, mental health plays a role in absenteeism, too, Story said. 

“We’re seeing a lot of mental health problems because they were sitting behind a computer, by themselves, on a phone for a year,” she said. “ … There’s complex trauma. There’s community stress for a lot of our children. Food insecurity. It’s a multitude of factors.” 

Impact on parents

Some parents have spoken out on social media about Cumberland County Schools’ approach to absenteeism, describing it as inconsistent or burdensome on families. 

In response to a Facebook post from CityView, one mother noted her daughter often missed school during the Covid-19 pandemic due to automatic absence requirements if a student presented certain symptoms of Covid. Another mother said her daughter missed 28 days of school due to social anxiety, but the school only sent a letter home once.

Several parents said they went to court over their children’s absences.

“I’m on probation for my kid missing to [sic] many days,” one parent wrote. “It’s a joke! Especially when it wasn’t something I could control.” 

Ashley Patoka told CityView her daughter missed about 5 hours of class each week as a kindergartner at Raleigh Road Elementary School off Ramsey Street this school year. Patoka said her child had to leave school early several days a week so she could attend occupational therapy and counseling for her autism, ADHD and sensory processing disorder. Before getting on the right medication, her daughter also was suspended from school for eight days and placed on a modified schedule because of behavioral issues, Patoka said.

“She was really struggling,” she said. “She was very keenly aware that she was not allowed to be there all day.” 

The necessary absences also posed a problem for Patoka, who works full time, and her daughter’s father, who was deployed through the military in the spring, she said.

“I’m so grateful I had my parents close by, and they were able to come up and help me,” she said. “ … It was rough.” 

Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.

This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.