By Desmond Bohan Hamden’s standardized test scores and percentage of students on track to graduate have rapidly declined over the past few years. Interestingly, the chronic absenteeism (missing 18 or more days) rate in 2023 was almost 20%, 5% higher than a few years prior. That means that only 4 out of 5 students came to school regularly that year.  From 2018-2021, only 3 years, the percentage of estimated peers to graduate has dipped by 16% and is still declining. 

Officials state that the culprit is none other than the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept us all home for 2 years and deprived us of our social interaction. This is believed to have caused students to get used to the low-stress,low-effort environment, which ultimately caused them to just stay at home and not come to school at all.  

Hamden High and nearby public schools are looking to combat this issue of missing peers. Superintendent Highsmith is looking to launch a campaign to get students to come to school by sending electronic reminders and paper mail to them. Along with this, there will be funding available for school staff to make home visits to chronically absent students, hoping to convince them to show up more.