Two months after reporting that Hartford Public Schools has graduated a higher percentage of seniors in 2023-24 than they have in more than a decade, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez released “official” chronic absenteeism data for 2023-24 which shows that for that record setting graduation class, 48.5% of them were chronically absent.

The superintendent’s “official” data shows that seniors at HPS had the worst percentage of chronica absenteeism when compared to all other grades.  While grades 9-11 closely trailed grade 12 chronic absenteeism rates, the superintendent’s data reveals that the three public high schools in Hartford (Weaver, HPHS, and Bulkeley) all had chronic absenteeism rates of over 65% for the year!  Two-thirds of HPS high school kids are missing at least 10% (probably much more) of instruction time.

Official chronic absenteeism data for 2023-24 shows that among Connecticut’s 36 Alliance school districts (called “peer districts” by the superintendent), HPS avoided having the worst chronic absenteeism rate by narrowly topping only New Haven (35% to 37%).  However, New Haven has improved their overall chronic absenteeism rate by 16 percentage points over the last 5 school years, while HPS’ overall rate has improved only 7 percentage points over the same period.

Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez stated during the August 20th board of education meeting that the data in her report shows how it is “so very important” that the board continues to approve millions of dollars in contracts to third-party partners.  Yes, and a 7 percentage point improvement in HPS’ chronic absenteeism rate over 5 years justifies those millions. 

While Hartford non-profits schlep over and over for millions of dollars awarded to urban school districts without showing meaningful, if any, results, millions of dollars could be saved if HPS and the state held students accountable; you don’t come to school, you don’t graduate.  Crisis solved; dollars saved.

Instead, the superintendent boasts that this summer 460 students went through HPS’ credit recovery program, “recovering” more than 741 credits, leaving students wondering as to why they should attend regular classes everyday if they can recover any missed credits by attending a three-week summer program where they use some lame computer program like Edgenuity to recover lost learning, which has cost HPS at least $85,000 a year in the past.