Students head back to school in the Rochester City School District Wednesday.
As in years past, there has been a big push to keep attendance strong. The district is making some progress in this effort. Last year, 32.7 percent of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10 percent or more of school days for any reason.
In the 2014-15 school year, the chronic absenteeism rate was 38 percent.
"We know it is the number one or number two leading predictor of academic outcomes. We want our students to not only be there on the first day, but to be there every day. It has a direct impact not only on their academic outcomes, but on their trajectory in life on the whole," said Jerome Underwood, director of family initiatives for the city school district.
He also told WXXI News that the biggest attendance problems have been seen among pre-kindergarteners. He says parents may wrongly assume that pre-kindergarten is simply playtime.
Underwood says attendance problems are different depending on the age of the student.
In Pre-K and elementary school, he says it's an adult problem that can range from homelessness to depression.
"The challenges that we have on the high school level are different that we have in elementary. In high school, you have the student making the decision that he or she is not going to go to school."
Meantime, as a new school year begins for students in the Rochester area, it's the first time in years that a handful of suburban students will be attending classes in the city.
Four 5-year olds from West Irondequoit are enrolled in the Rochester School District's Pre-K program, according to School Superintendent Jeff Crane.
"It's basically making sure that our youngest are in situations that best prepare them for their 13 years of education and that best prepare them for success."
Crane is a longtime advocate of diversity in education and the Urban-Suburban Program.
That effort has traditionally allowed Rochester students to attend schools in the suburban districts, but starting this year, suburban students can go to Rochester schools.
Crane said the city schools do offer some specific opportunities not found in other districts.
"I think suburban parents, when they found out that your ninth grader could enter Edison and over the course of the first two years become a student enrolled at Edison and Monroe Community College; and in the course of five or six years, depending on the student's ability to move through the program, graduate with an associate’s degree at that point for no money, that gets people's attention."
