Chronic absenteeism in Cumberland County Schools has dropped to 27.4% midway through the 2025–26 school year, a nearly five-point decrease that translates to roughly 2,300 more students attending school more consistently.
The Student Support Services Committee provided the updated numbers during a February 26 meeting. The drop in chronic absenteeism comes as Cumberland County Schools expands programs to combat absenteeism, including targeting students at five schools with hundreds of in-home visits.
Chronic absenteeism means a student has missed 10% or more of the school year, including both excused and unexcused absences. In 2022-23, chronic absenteeism in the district reached 34.53%, declined slightly to 33.48% in 2023–24, and rose to 33.76% in 2024–25 for the full school year. That meant roughly one in three students were chronically absent districtwide.
District leaders said the midyear rate has now fallen to 27.4% through January 30 of the 2025–26 school year, roughly halfway through the academic year. The rate was 32.32% at the midway point of the 2024-25 school year.
Officials have linked chronic absenteeism to lingering post-pandemic attendance habits, as well as student well-being challenges such as mental health concerns, and family mobility, including students frequently moving or changing schools.
Even with the improvement in chronic absenteeism, officials said overall attendance remains a major priority. As of January 20, the district’s average daily attendance rate stood at 91.51%, well below the district’s target of 95%.
District leaders said attendance tends to dip during predictable periods in the school calendar, particularly in the days leading up to Thanksgiving and winter break.
“Every percentage point on this graph represents thousands of student instructional hours that are missed when students are not in school,” Chalmers McClain said.
District Expands Attendance Interventions
Melody Chalmers McClain, associate superintendent of student support services, said they are continuing to address attendance patterns that emerged during the pandemic.
“We are still addressing lingering post-pandemic habits related to attendance, health concerns and family mobility,” Chalmers McClain said.
She said the 2025–26 school year is the first full school year that all grade levels are implementing the district’s revised attendance policy, which the school board approved in September 2024.
“Our schools have incentive programs that they’re implementing to strengthen school culture and motivation to come to school every day,” Chalmers McClain said. Schools are also using attendance contracts and improvement plans for students with repeated absences, she added.
Officials said the district is also working with the Truancy Mediation Council to intervene with families before court action becomes necessary. The process brings together school staff, families, and community agencies to develop plans to improve student attendance.
Schools Participating In Home Visit Pilot
The district has also launched a home visit pilot program for students with 20 or more unexcused absences, where staff attempt to reconnect families with schools through direct outreach.
The initiative is run through a partnership with Maryland-based Concentric Educational Solutions, which hires local staff to conduct home visits and outreach to families.
As of March 19, Concentric has conducted 226 home visits across five schools with higher levels of chronic absenteeism, according to data provided by the school district to CityView.
- Luther Nick Jeralds Middle School (58.32% chronic absenteeism): 65 visits
- Westarea Elementary School (43.11%)—55 visits
- Douglas Byrd Middle School (53.41%)—54 visits
- J.W. Coon Elementary School (33.82%)—28 visits
- Max Abbott Middle School (41.59%)—24 visits
Two of the schools—Douglas Byrd Middle and Luther Nick Jeralds Middle—are among the five schools the district included in its application for the state’s Restart Model. The program grants charter school-like flexibility in staffing, budgeting, and scheduling.
Dropout Rate Declines, Race and Gender Gaps Remain
District officials also reported a decline in the district’s dropout rate. According to the midyear update, the rate fell from 2.09% during the 2023–24 school year to 1.28% during the 2024–25 school year.
However, district leaders said the data still shows disparities across student groups.
“When we disaggregate this data, we do see that a higher number of males were identified as dropouts compared to females, and African American students were represented as the largest number of students that dropped out, followed by Hispanic students and then white students,” Chalmers McClain said.
She said district leaders are encouraged by the overall decline but acknowledged that gaps remain.
“We know that there’s still work to do to close the race and gender gaps that were identified and to increase our average daily attendance rate to at least 95%,” she said.
District leaders said they are continuing to focus on improving communication with families and implementing early interventions to keep students engaged in school.
Short-Term Suspensions Increase
District officials said attendance, behavior, and dropout risk are closely connected indicators of student engagement, making discipline trends another factor the district monitors as it works to keep students in school.
Through January of the 2025–26 school year, 3,307 students received short-term suspensions, compared with 3,105 students during the same period in the 2024–25 school year. That’s an increase of about 202 students.
“Just to give you an update from our previous year’s discipline data, the average length of a student suspension during the previous year was about three days, and the top reasons that students were suspended were for disruptive behavior, aggressive behavior, or fighting,” Chalmers McClain said.
She added that the district has also seen an increase in students approved for disciplinary reassignment, which typically involves transferring a student to Ramsey Street High School or Howard Learning Academy, the district’s alternative education programs, following serious or repeated behavioral violations.
District data shows 462 students were assigned to an alternative school for disciplinary reassignment during the 2024–25 school year, compared with 334 students as of Jan. 30, 2026 for the current school year.
“We also have seen an increase in our number of students that have been approved for a disciplinary reassignment, and the top reasons for those reassignments are fighting, assault, and cumulative suspensions,” she said.
Chalmers McClain said the district is continuing to analyze discipline trends to better understand which students are most affected.
“While these data points help us to understand overall trends, we know it’s equally important to understand who is being impacted by these numbers and why,” she said.
District leaders said schools are expanding training in restorative practices—which focus on resolving conflicts and repairing harm—and trauma-informed care, which emphasizes understanding how students’ experiences and stress can affect behavior, along with de-escalation strategies.
