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The Albert Lea school board on Monday dug deeper into data about attendance across the district as well as the challenges they face and strategies in place to improve those numbers.

Tonya Franks, executive director of academics and accountability for the district, said consistent attendance is one of the five indicators that the district is held accountable for through the North Star accountability system at the state level.

Consistent attendance refers to the percentage of students attending more than 90% of days enrolled in school, while chronic absenteeism is the opposite — when students miss at least 10% of their school days.

Franks said there are two main platforms that present attendance data — first, through the Minnesota Report Card, which is publicly accessible and provides a high level overview of school and district performance, and second, through the North Star accountability files, which dives deeper into the data and can look further at various student subgroups and allow school administration and policy makers the ability to track progress easier.

The data doesn’t match, she said, because of various factors, including timing of data updates, data definitions and criteria and data aggregation. Overall, the Minnesota Report Card data is more general and is updated only at set intervals, while the North Star Accountability Files, is updated more frequently and provides more accurate information to make data-driven decisions, she said.

School administrators presented numbers available through the North Star system, as well as local projections made with the district’s student information system when North Star data was not available.

The year 2022-23 was an outlier year with rates far above the average across the board.

Overall, she said Albert Lea Area Schools is seeing 88.13% consistent attendance so far in the 2024-25 school year. Numbers ranged from 82% to 86% on average with the outlier rate in 2022-23 with 92.7%.

The statewide consistent attendance rate for years the data was available was 85 to 86%.

Elementary level

The following are the attendance rates presented at each elementary school:

• Sibley: 2024-25, 93.9%; otherwise rates ranged from 91 to almost 93% with the outlier of 97.3% in 2022-23.

• Lakeview: 2024-25, 95.8%; other rates ranged from 90 to 92.2% with the outlier of 96.4% in 2022-23.

• Hawthorne: 2024-25, 94.7%; other rates ranged from 91.2% to 93.8% with the outlier of 96.4% in 2022-23.

• Halverson: 2024-25, 92.9%; other rates ranged from 88.4% to 91.8% with the outlier of 96.7% in 2022-23.    

Regarding some of the attendance intervention strategies in place at the elementary level, Lakeview Elementary Principal Zack Kruger said staff are focusing on providing a safe and welcoming environment and building relationships with the students. They are also working to support emotional difficulties of the students through specific curriculum.

They also monitor attendance, meet weekly to talk through students who have been absent and to make sure they’re getting their needs met. They also try to track patterns.

After three unexcused absences, teachers call the parents to offer support.

Halverson Elementary Principal Kim Larson said providing this outreach to parents has been important so parents feel comfortable discussing challenges. They also have implemented a check-in and check-out system, where students can check in and out with a trusted adult every day, creating accountability and connection.

Sibley Elementary Principal Kristi Kenis said they also have social workers work with students who struggle with engagement to come up with a plan that may improve attendance. They also implement mentors for additional support.

Franks said when a child under 12 misses seven unexcused days in a school year, the school is required to file an educational neglect report to child protection officials, who meet with the parent to discuss reasons for the solutions and to find a solution.

When a child is over 12 and misses the same number of days it becomes a child welfare response and the child can become truant. The district partners with Freeborn County’s Probation and Pre-Trial Services Department for truancy officers to improve school attendance at that level.

She noted there are currently 60 students who receive truancy services.

Southwest Middle School

Southwest Principal Tyler Johnson said so far this school year, 90.7% of Southwest students are consistently attending school.

In other years, the number has ranged from 84.6% to 88.52%. An outlier was in 2022-23 with 94.6%.

He said some of the ways staff at Southwest has tried to encourage attendance is through presentations at the start of the school year on why attendance matters, as well as a YouTube video onto the Southwest page about the issue. The school’s dean of students primarily works with attendance and works with attendance clerks.

New this year, they are bringing incentives for attendance, where each week names get pulled for prizes. They also do team competitions.

They have implemented attendance updates in the school newsletter, automated phone calls and continuing truant letters after three days, seven days and nine days. The dean meets with the student to go over the process and what roadblocks the student is facing.

Area Learning Center

Likely the most challenging attendance data is at the Area Learning Center, where so far this year, consistent attendance has been 25.7%, Administrator Jeff Halverson said. The rate in previous years ranged from 21.7 to 42.99% with 64.4% the outlier in 2022-23.

He noted 21% of the students at the ALC are past their original graduation year and do not fall with compulsory attendance scenarios. For ALC students, attendance correlates with being able to attain credits.

Some of the intervention strategies they have implemented there include a mentor program for the students to work with a teacher on areas where there is success along with areas that are falling short. Staff also reach out to parents and caregivers.

They are also looking to implement school-wide attendance incentives, as well as an experiential career exploration and a small group collaborative course. Halverson said they work to meet the students where they are at.

Albert Lea High School

So far for the 2024-25 school year, the consistent attendance rate at the high school is 82.3%. Previous years attendance ranged from 75.7% to 80.1% on average, with 89.1% being an outlier in 2022-23.

Assistant High School Principal Sean Gaston said they look at the hourly level, including those who come to school but who may not go to class. He said while they still have students who don’t come to school at all, they’re seeing more of in-school truancy.

Some of the interventions high school staff implement include a flex advisory program, a free activities program — to participate in activities students must not have unexcused classes. There’s the REACH program and calls, letters and meetings, as well as the truancy program with the county.

They noted that 10% of the students are the ones with truancy problems, while 90% are doing a great job.

Johanna Thomas said from her experience, as students get older, they get more mature and learn that their decisions are up to them — and eventually that they are responsible for their own success.                                                        

Superintendent Ron Wagner said the attendance work is ongoing, and they will continue to monitor progress.            B