ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Attendance has been a problem within Albuquerque Public Schools for years. Now, a recently introduced initiative is helping make sure students are going to class.
Chronic absences is a problem that APS says they’ve been dealing with following their return to class after the pandemic. The district has turned to creating what they call, School Attendance Teams. The teams consist of teachers, counselors and social workers.
“The 21-22 school year we saw 43% of students were chronically absent,” said Antonio Gonzales, Chief Academic Officer for Albuquerque Public Schools. “Last school year the 2022-2023 school year we saw 34% of our students who were chronically absent so it kinda decreased by about 9-10%.”
With a four tier system in place, the district believes they’re seeing success because they try to step in once a student starts to miss school. “Tier One which is really all of our students need awareness around coming to school everyday, they need awareness on the importance of being in school,” said Gonzales. “Tier Four is when our students have 20% or more when they’re chronically absent, that’s when we start looking at referrals other agencies to help us with our students to really succeed.”
Every school in the district has an attendance team.
