EAST LIVERPOOL — This one of those times that East Liverpool City School District superintendent Jonathan Ludwig isn’t content being number one.

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE)’s chronic absenteeism statistics show that among Columbiana County school districts, East Liverpool had the highest percentage within the county.

State officials define chronic absenteeism as the percentage of the student body who misses 10 percent of their school days any given year. This includes excused and unexcused absences as well as suspensions per ODE. Truancy, on the other hand, just includes the unexcused absences.

“Over the past several years, our district has made reducing chronic absenteeism a priority,” Ludwig explained. “Like districts across the nation, we experienced a significant increase following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are encouraged by the steady progress we have made since that time.”

East Liverpool’s numbers are improving over the last five years. Back during the 2021-22 school year, their chronic absenteeism rate was 46.5 percent, and the numbers had declined 3 percent annually since then.

Last year East Liverpool was ranked at 37.6 percent, and Ludwig projects that will drop more than 5 percent this school year to 32.2 percent.

In comparison were Columbiana 13.7%, United 18%; West Branch 19.1%, Crestview 22.9%, Utica Shale Academy 24%, Beaver Local 24.8%; Salem 32.1%, Wellsville 32.3%, Leetonia 32.4%, East Palestine 34.1%, Southern Local 37% and Lisbon 37.1%. In Mahoning County South Range was 10.9% and Sebring 32.3%. No figures were available on the ODE website for the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center.

In the case of East Liverpool, Ludwig explained, “(Our projected) improvement reflects several deliberate steps we have taken to better monitor attendance and support students. One of the first steps was improving our data systems. We implemented Attendance K-12, which allows our truancy officer and school teams to more efficiently identify and respond to students experiencing attendance challenging.”

East Liverpool also improved its internal tracking to better understand attendance patterns across the district by building, grade level and other key indicators in an effort to encourage improved attendance.

Tom Cunningham, superintendent of Southern Local School District, admitted chronic absenteeism is something that Southern Local has struggled with. He recently reported, like East Liverpool, promoting attendance through positive reinforcement does seem to be working. “I am a believer that if you are not in school, you don’t have the ability to learn,” Cunningham continued. “I anticipate we will have a 10 percent decrease this school year as result of some of our efforts.”

For example, Southern Local partnered with both the Cleveland Browns Foundation and Columbus Crew soccer team, which offer potential incentives for attendance through their Stay In the Game initiative.

“We are working on ways to break down the barriers by engaging students, so they want to be here,” Cunningham said.

East Liverpool’s Ludwig agreed that this positive reinforcement strategy, which can take the form of rewarding students for strong attendance with everything from ice cream parties to recognition programs, seems to be making a difference. However, he added that district staff is careful not to discourage students who may have struggled earlier in the year.

“Improvement is often recognized as well, and students who demonstrate meaningful gains in their attendance are frequently included in attendance or PBIS recognition activities,” Ludwig explained. “(National chronic absenteeism) research consistently shows that punitive approaches alone — including court involvement — are not permanent solutions.”

The East Liverpool superintendent, like Southern Local’s Cunningham, believes that “student engagement, strong relationships with adults in the building, mentorship and access to support services are among the most effective ways to improve attendance.”

“As a result, our district has focused on building systems that allow us to intervene earlier and provide meaningful support to students and families” Ludwig added.

The state of Ohio’s target rate is 12.8 percent for chronic absenteeism, and Columbiana Exempted Village School District comes the closest to meeting that goal with its 13.7 percent rate.

The remainder of Columbiana County school districts have chronic absenteeism rates two and three times higher than the target rate. Largely impacted in those categories are students with disabilities who are economically disadvantaged.

This largely makes sense based on the fact that educators find that the chronic absenteeism often is caused by transportation barriers, mental health struggles, family responsibilities and trauma.

Columbiana schools superintendent Dr. Don Mook admits that normally a low percentage would not necessarily be a good thing; however, in the world of chronic absenteeism, it is.

Communication is the key to Columbiana’s success. The principals stay in touch with the parents with Joshua Dixon Elementary School Kim Sharshan handling it for the littlest ones, while assistant principal Rich Cyrus at the middle and high schools handles it at those buildings, Mook explained.

“Generally our parents do work with us to the best of their ability. Some kids are genuinely sick,” Mook added. “Sometimes we do some online instruction with them, because they need that for legitimate reasons- not just because they are absent.”

Cyrus is assigned part of his time at Columbiana Middle School and the remainder of his time at the high school.

The ability to share personnel is one of the perks of being a smaller school district.

“Students become more independent as they get older, and often they don’t pull up their end of the bargain,” the Columbiana superintendent explained, adding that is why a call to the parents or guardians is necessary. “Our families tend to get their kids to school and value the education as our stats tend to reflect,” Mook concluded. “We are very fortunate.”