Transitioning back to life post-pandemic was hard for many people, but it was significantly difficult for students.

“We noticed that students were not fully returning back to school,” said Aundrea Sanders, director of crisis prevention and intervention supports for Buffalo Public Schools. “We had parents that were concerned with the continued spread of COVID. We had to look at addressing student attendance in a different manner.”

A new report released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli details that roughly one in three students throughout New York state is considered chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year. 

Chronic absenteeism is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as the share of students who miss at least 10% of days in a given school year, whether those days are missed excused, unexcused or for disciplinary reasons. However, in New York state, suspensions are not counted as absences.

“We’re talking about that as if sitting there in the seat is determining whether you learn or not. I just think that we live in a very different time,” said Sam Radford, a board member of the National Parents Union and Co-Chair of We The Parents.

“Obviously we know from the pandemic that you don't have to be at school to learn,” said Sanders.

In an effort to combat high absentee rates, Buffalo Public Schools began a three-tiered approach to addressing chronic absenteeism, with the first tier being the same for all students, sending home welcome back letters and motivating daily attendance.

“Our tier two level supports for our students that we notice are still having some issues with getting back to school. So that consists of phone calls home from classroom teachers [and] phone calls home from our attendance support teachers,” Sanders said. 

Last year, attendance support teachers in the Buffalo City School District made more than 32,000 phone calls home, and more than 5,000 home visits were made to students considered in the third tier, who were or had history of being chronically absent.

“Our hope is that students are in school every day and that daily attendance will continue to increase with that three-tier level,” said Sanders.

It’s something some parents don’t believe is the new norm.

“After the pandemic, instead of adjusting to that like every other sector of society, we tried to go back to the system that was in place beforehand and students are just not responding to it,” Radford said.