13-year-old Isaac Ciongoli often struggles to make it in to Chiloquin High School. He鈥檒l pull out that age-old excuse 鈥� he doesn鈥檛 feel good 鈥� but really, he just doesn鈥檛 want to go to school since COVID.
"It's like going back to school from summer break," he said. "It's hard to get back on that track."
Isaac is just one of many kids having a hard time getting back on track. His mom said remote learning did not work well for him, and he was at a third grade reading level. So, school is difficult, he鈥檚 behind and he doesn鈥檛 like going.
Isaac has noticed other kids not showing up either, which then feeds into his own desire not to go.
"When your friends aren't there, it just makes school like prison, kind of," he said.
This chronic absenteeism 鈥� different than leaving public school for homeschooling 鈥� has serious impacts.
"Students that are chronically absent year after year, they get out of sync with their peers," said Jeff Bullock, school improvement director with the Klamath County School District. "They fall behind academically. And in two years, three years, if that attendance rate isn't improved, suddenly they find out that they're reading a year or two years behind their peers."
It鈥檚 not that Isaac isn't curious about learning. He told me he and his dad stayed up until midnight the night before, talking.
"It started with the animal the wolverine, and then it got to like the Aztec sun god thing and Egyptian stuff because the world's a wonder," he said.
Isaac鈥檚 not the only kid having a hard time going to school. Recent shows that statewide, student attendance is still down 17% since before the COVID pandemic.
And some student groups are absent more frequently than others.
Overall, 66% of K-12 students attended more than 90% of the school days in the 2023-2024 school year.
But almost 53% of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students were chronically absent, as were over 56% of homeless students and over 64% of currently or formerly incarcerated students.
'No one reason'
"There's no one reason and one solution to this challenge of attendance," Bullock said.
One factor is mixed messaging about illness since the pandemic, which can be confusing for parents.
"Their concern and willingness to keep their students home to either prevent them from spreading germs or from getting sick at school 鈥� that's a big piece of this attendance puzzle. I mean, we see that in the winter months when cold and flu season hits," Bullock said.
Some families have also gotten out of the habit of getting up and going to school, especially after remote learning.
"Mornings are easier when you can kind of just wake up and take it easy and relax and wake up slowly," said Sarah Ciongoli, Isaac's mom. "Rather than the wake up, hurry up, we have 15 minutes to get there!"
There are many other barriers, too.
Sarah said she sometimes needs Isaac to stay home to watch his little nephew when she has to work.
Other kids have jobs, or are bullied or don鈥檛 have stable housing.
"We also have families, of course, that are a little more disengaged in the sense of they are wanting to understand what the purpose of school is," said Marisa Poling, assistant director of family and community engagement for the Medford School District. "Re-explaining why school is important, how it's connected to their future and college and career readiness."
Sometimes families don't realize how much school their kid has missed or how great an impact that has.
"A lot of it is really bringing these awareness campaigns, helping families understand the impact so they know that 10 days is a lot of days out of school," said Jeanne Grazioli, Medford's deputy superintendent.
Then, of course, there are mental health issues.
Karen Wooten鈥檚 daughter Katie is on the autism spectrum and has anxiety that sometimes makes her mute. She didn't want to talk to me, so she typed answers to my questions into an iPad for her mom to read.
"It was very hard for her to access the remote learning. Really challenging. You did not enjoy it, huh?" Karen said to Katie. "That was not your favorite thing, was it?"
Karen said 13-year-old Katie struggled with remote learning, got behind and then suffered debilitating panic attacks when she tried to return to school full-time.
"When you can't do something, you kind of freeze and panic, huh? Yeah. And then it's like, 'Oh my gosh, what do I do?' " Karen reflected back to Katie. " 'Other people aren't struggling, why am I?' But really, more people were struggling than you realized."
Katie now attends Falcon Heights Alternative School in Klamath Falls for 2.5 hours a day, and Karen said Katie鈥檚 attendance is much more consistent with a shorter schedule.
"Her needs come first and comfort level. And if it's a shortened day to do that, it is what it is at this point. It's all about supporting her," Karen said.
'Let's hear the why'
Addressing chronic absenteeism is really complicated, according to Jacquie Jaquette, school improvement specialist with the Southern Oregon Education Service District.
"Attendance is connected to so many other things, and it's such a symptom of so many other reasons why somebody is not coming to school," she said. "It's also connected to grades and behavior. They're all interwoven together. We know it's a problem, it's really just hard to break down because we haven't dealt with anything like this to this magnitude before."
But she has seen some practices that seem to be working. Some schools have attendance teams to build positive relationships with families.
Other districts are trying incentives and rewards.
"If you had no tardies over like the course of two weeks, they got a dance party in their advisory class," Jaquette said. "Some people are doing bubble parties at lunch. They'll hire a DJ on a Friday."
She said there鈥檚 also more focus on project-based, hands-on learning to get kids engaged, especially in career and technical education.
Bullock has seen positive results from that approach in his district.
"[Students] know 'I've got this project I'm working on. I'm building this shed. We're supposed to be making this meal in fifth period. So I've got to be in fifth period because I got a team that's counting on me.' That type of thing. I think that makes a difference," he said.
For his part, 13-year-old Isaac Ciongoli said he wants more breaks during the day and better school lunches. He now meets with a teacher at the beginning of each day to help him catch up, which he enjoys.
And attendance is slowly improving. Statewide rates increased by 4% between the last two school years.
But Jaquette still has concerns about absent kids falling behind, how that might impact their future jobs and the local economy.
Her next step is talking to the kids who are consistently showing up.
"What is bringing you to school? Let's hear that. Let's hear the why," she said.
She hopes understanding why students do go to school will help get more kids back in the classroom.
