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Newark Cut Chronic Absenteeism by More Than Half

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

In 2018-19, more than one in four Newark^↗ students was chronically absent. The district's rate, 26.8%, was 16.2 percentage points above the state average, worse than all but a handful of New Jersey's urban districts. Superintendent Roger Leon had just taken office as the first locally selected leader in more than two decades, following 25 years of state control that ended with a unanimous vote by the state board of education.

Five years later, Newark's chronic absenteeism rate is 11.5%. That is 3.4 percentage points below the New Jersey statewide average of 14.9%.

The reversal is not marginal. In 2019, Newark's rate was nearly identical to Paterson^↗'s (27.6%) and far worse than Jersey City^↗'s (15.2%) or Elizabeth^↗'s (11.9%). By 2024, Newark had the lowest chronic absenteeism of any major urban district in the state. It did not merely recover from COVID. It erased the gap, crossed through zero, and kept going.

The scale of the drop

The 15.3 percentage point decline from 2019 to 2024 represents a 57% reduction. Among New Jersey's 605 districts with data in both years, Newark posted the second-largest improvement, trailing only Trenton^↗ STEM-to-Civics Charter School, an institution small enough that year-over-year swings are routine. Among traditional districts of any meaningful size, Newark's improvement is unmatched.

Every demographic subgroup in the district now has a lower chronic absenteeism rate than it did before the pandemic. That is not a common outcome. Statewide, 87.1% of districts have chronic absenteeism rates higher than their 2018-19 levels. Newark is among the 12.9% that broke through.

The subgroup numbers are where the story sharpens. Students with disabilities went from 36.3% chronically absent to 15.4%, a 20.9 percentage point drop. Black students went from 35.3% to 14.9%, a 20.4 point improvement. Economically disadvantaged students dropped from 26.2% to 11.0%. English learners fell from 16.6% to 9.1%.

How Newark compares to its peers

Camden^↗'s chronic absenteeism rate in 2023-24 was 46.9%, nearly half of all students. Paterson stood at 35.7%. Trenton at 34.0%. Jersey City at 23.8%. Elizabeth, the closest peer, at 15.8%.

Newark, the largest of the group with roughly 40,000 students, sits at 11.5%.

That gap is not explained by demographics. Newark serves a student body that is overwhelmingly low-income, majority Black and Hispanic, with high rates of English learners and students receiving special education services. Camden and Paterson serve similar populations. The difference is in what happened inside the schools.

What Newark did

The district deployed a layered strategy that combined personal outreach with institutional infrastructure. The Communities In Schools partnership, launched in 2023-24, placed attendance counselors in six schools to connect families with resources. The district has expanded the program by at least five schools per year since.

The "Take Five" program, also introduced in 2023-24, assigns each teacher a small group of at-risk students to maintain regular contact with families, including reminders at the start of the school year and check-ins during absences. Incentives ranged from gift cards to tickets at Prudential Center, provided through a partnership with the Devils Youth Foundation.

But the improvement predates these specific programs. Newark's chronic rate fell from 32.0% in 2017-18 to 26.8% in 2018-19, Leon's first year. Apart from the 2022 statewide spike, the trajectory has been downward in every year the district has data. The 2021 figure, 16.6% during a year of widespread remote and hybrid learning, is difficult to interpret, though Newark's attendance infrastructure was already expanding by then. Even the 2022 spike to 28.1%, which hit every New Jersey district, was followed by a 15.4 point single-year drop to 12.7% in 2022-23.

The equity dimension

Newark's Black students now have a 14.9% chronic absenteeism rate. The statewide rate for Black students is 21.4%. A Black student in Newark is less likely to be chronically absent than the average Black student anywhere else in the state.

In 2019, Newark's Black students had a 35.3% chronic rate, roughly double the statewide average for Black students. By 2024, the district had not only closed the gap but inverted it. Newark's Black student rate fell 20.4 points while the statewide Black rate barely moved.

The Council of the Great City Schools ranked Newark second nationally for lowest absenteeism in grades 8 and 9, and third in grades 3 through 6, based on 2023-24 data. The same report placed the district first in the nation for lowest out-of-school suspension rates across all demographic groups.

"This national recognition means that our work is transforming Newark Public Schools. It is clear evidence that the district is leading its students in the essential indicators." -- Superintendent Roger Leon, Newark Board of Education

The discipline connection matters. New Jersey bans out-of-school suspension for K-2 students except in cases of violent or sexual conduct. Newark appears to have taken this further. When students are not pushed out of school for behavioral infractions, they are more likely to attend. The relationship between suspension policy and attendance data is not coincidental.

What the data cannot explain

Three things are genuinely unclear.

The 2020-21 figure, 16.6%, is lower than both the pre-COVID baseline and the subsequent 2022 peak. This pattern, where a COVID-year chronic rate dips below normal, is unusual and may reflect different attendance counting methodologies during remote learning. The state did not collect chronic absenteeism data for 2019-20 at all.

It is also unclear how much of Newark's improvement reflects changes in how absences are counted or reported versus genuine changes in student behavior. Classification methodology can shift without public announcement, and the 2018-to-2024 span covers a period of significant change in state reporting requirements.

Finally, while the data shows what happened, it cannot prove which specific intervention caused the change. The district implemented multiple strategies simultaneously, hired attendance counselors, partnered with community organizations, changed discipline policy, expanded wraparound services, and opened a reengagement center for disconnected youth. The decline started before most of these programs were formally launched, which suggests either that earlier, less visible work was already effective or that structural changes in school culture predated the named programs.

What comes next

Newark reported its chronic rate dropped further to 10.4% in 2024-25, the third consecutive year of improvement. Elementary students are at 8.8%. The trajectory has not stalled.

But the composition of the remaining 10.4% hints at what comes next. Students experiencing homelessness had a 26.4% chronic rate in 2023-24. Students with disabilities sat at 15.4%. These are populations whose barriers to attendance -- unstable housing, medical appointments, transportation that depends on a parent who cannot miss a shift -- do not yield to mentoring programs or gift-card incentives. Newark has driven its overall rate below the state average. The harder work is ahead.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Paterson's Black Students Trail Every Group in Attendance Recovery

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

In this series: New Jersey 2023-24 Chronic Absenteeism.

At Paterson's^↗ School 6, more than half of all students were chronically absent in 2023-24. A reporting investigation found that the school, along with several neighbors, had not filed a corrective action plan since 2021-22, despite state requirements for districts above 10%.

School 6 is an extreme case. But the district-wide numbers tell a version of the same story, and the sharpest version belongs to Paterson's Black students.

45.9%

That is the chronic absenteeism rate for Black students in Paterson in 2023-24. Nearly one in two missed 18 or more school days. Before the pandemic, the rate was 35.2% -- already more than double the statewide average for all students. COVID pushed it to 59.0% in 2021-22. Two years of recovery have brought it down, but not nearly enough.

The total district rate followed a similar arc: 27.6% before the pandemic, 49.6% at peak, 35.7% now. The difference is that Black students started higher, climbed higher, and have come back less.

Hispanic students, who make up the majority of Paterson's enrollment, have recovered 63.8% of their pandemic increase, falling from 49.5% to 34.7%. The overall rate has recovered 63.2%. Black students have recovered just 55.0%, leaving them 10.7 percentage points above their own pre-pandemic baseline.

The gap within the gap

Every subgroup in Paterson runs far above state averages. But the internal disparities matter too.

The Black-white chronic absenteeism gap within Paterson was 16.2 percentage points before COVID. It blew out to 29.4 points at the pandemic peak in 2021-22, when 59.0% of Black students and 29.6% of white students were chronically absent. The gap has narrowed since then, but at 19.6 points in 2023-24, it remains wider than it was before the pandemic.

White students in Paterson are having their own attendance crisis -- 26.3% chronically absent is more than double the statewide white rate of 11.4%. But white students have recovered the least of any subgroup: just 37.6% of the way back from their peak. Their chronic rate actually got worse from 2021-22 to 2022-23, climbing from 29.6% to 30.7% before declining. For Black students, recovery has been slow. For white students in Paterson, it barely started until last year.

Four times the statewide white rate

Paterson's Black chronic rate of 45.9% is exactly four times the statewide white rate of 11.4%. That ratio has been remarkably stable: it was 4.4x before the pandemic, peaked at 4.8x in 2020-21, and has settled back to 4.0x.

The stability of that ratio is, in its own way, damning. It means the structural forces that produce the gap -- concentrated poverty, housing instability, inadequate transportation, health care access -- have not changed.

Paterson's Black rate also runs far above the statewide Black rate of 21.4%. The gap between Paterson's Black students and Black students statewide was 17.6 points before COVID. It exploded to 30.6 points at peak. At 24.5 points in 2023-24, it has closed somewhat but remains nearly 7 points wider than it was before the pandemic.

The most vulnerable

Chronic absenteeism in Paterson climbs further at every layer of disadvantage. Students experiencing homelessness hit 64.1% in 2023-24, up from 52.0% pre-COVID. Students in foster care reached 45.2%. Students with disabilities: 42.4%, up from 33.9%.

Economically disadvantaged students, a category that covers the vast majority of Paterson's enrollment, sat at 36.4% -- 9.4 points above their pre-COVID rate and barely distinguishable from the district's overall 35.7%.

The recovery picture is uneven. English learners have recovered the most (69.4% of their pandemic increase), followed by Hispanic students (63.8%) and the overall rate (63.2%). Black students (55.0%) and students with disabilities (53.8%) have barely crossed the halfway mark. White students, at 37.6%, are the furthest behind, though their lower absolute rate means the raw numbers are smaller.

Newark went the other direction

The comparison that should keep Paterson administrators up at night is 30 miles east on Route 80.

Newark's Black chronic absenteeism rate was 35.3% in 2018-19 -- essentially identical to Paterson's 35.2%. By 2023-24, Newark had driven its Black rate down to 14.9%. Paterson's was 45.9%. A gap of 1 point became a gap of 31.

Trenton's trajectory has been wilder -- its Black rate spiked to 73.0% in 2020-21 before settling to 38.9% -- but it too has recovered more of its pandemic increase than Paterson. Newark is the outlier: a district with comparable poverty and demographics that cut chronic absenteeism for Black students by more than half in five years, using attendance counselors, a truancy task force, and systematic family engagement.

Whether Newark's approach is replicable in Paterson is an open question. Newark had years of state intervention that built certain institutional capacities. Paterson's challenges include a 44.5% foreign-born population, families who travel internationally during the school year, and what district officials have described as "menstrual poverty" -- girls missing school because they cannot afford basic hygiene products.

What is being done

Paterson hired chronic absenteeism specialists in 2018, and the district uses compulsory attendance specialists to follow up with students. But the state data suggests these interventions have not yet bent the curve for the students who need them most.

New Jersey's funding structure creates a distinctive dynamic. Unlike California, Texas, and many other states, New Jersey funds schools based on enrollment, not average daily attendance. Paterson does not lose per-pupil revenue when students miss school. The financial pressure to chase attendance is indirect. The academic consequences are not.

In 2018-19, Newark's Black chronic absenteeism rate was 35.3%. Paterson's was 35.2%. Five years later, Newark's is 14.9%. Paterson's is 45.9%. Same state, similar demographics, comparable poverty rates, 30 miles apart on Route 80, and a 31-point gap in outcomes for Black students. Whatever Newark did that Paterson did not, it produced one of the starkest divergences in attendance equity anywhere in the country.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.