Albuquerque Public Schools
Fostering a Culture of Belonging: The Key to Student Attendance
In her weekly message, Superintendent Durán Blakey discusses chronic absenteeism and the work APS is doing to improve daily attendance.
A school district can have the best teachers, the greatest curriculum, and the nicest schools, but none of that matters if students aren’t showing up to class every day.
September is Attendance Awareness Month. The designation began more than a decade ago to draw attention to the important role of school attendance in academic achievement and future success.
The simple fact is that we can’t teach students if they’re not in school. And students who miss a lot of school frequently fall behind, because the concepts being taught in reading, math and other subjects are built on the prior day’s lessons. Beyond that, good attendance is a vital habit for students to have when they go out into the world. If they’re constantly missing work or their college classes, they’re not going to be very successful in those settings.
Chronic absenteeism is a problem that school districts across the country have been grappling with, particularly since the pandemic. Our district hasn’t escaped that trend.
The year before the pandemic hit, 24.1% of our students were chronically absent, which means they missed 10% or more of the school year. That number jumped to 34.2% during the 2022-2023 school year. We’ve made slight improvements since then, but it’s still too high. Last school year, 29.8% of our students were chronically absent.
Overall, 59 APS schools reduced their chronic absenteeism rates from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, and I want to give a shoutout to the five with the largest year-to-year reductions.
- Freedom High School dropped its chronic absenteeism rate by 33 percentage points last year, going from 91% to 58%.
- Wilson Middle School saw a 17 percentage point drop.
- New Futures High School had a 15 percentage point decrease.
- E. G. Ross Elementary School had a 10 percentage point drop.
- And A. Montoya Elementary School had a 9 percentage point improvement.
Congratulations to the leaders, staff and families from these five schools who made tremendous gains last year, and congratulations to the other 54 schools who improved!
I’m proud to say we have a team that works with schools to help them use data to identify attendance problems early and help students and their families tap into resources they need to address the underlying problem. The Attendance Support Unit, which falls under the Coordinated School Health Department umbrella, recently held its Fall Attendance Conference for principals, counselors, teaching and learning coaches and others who support students.
We recognize that’s only part of the solution.
I truly believe that we can improve attendance by fostering a culture of belonging at each and every one of our schools.
And that’s why I’m particularly excited about the attendance gains we’re seeing at Wilson Middle School. As you know, we’ve launched a middle school redesign initiative focused on creating a student-centered learning environment where teachers collaborate more and where students are grouped based on individual needs and interests. Wilson was an early adopter of the program, and it’s been using the teaming model for two years now, which has helped create a strong sense of belonging there. This school is beating the odds!
Students who feel like they belong are more likely to show up every day.
I want every student to have at least one adult at their school that they’re comfortable talking to. I want our students to know that they will be missed if they don’t show up to school on Monday. I want every student to be encouraged to join a club, team or other activity that helps them build connections with their peers.
We have the power to foster this sense of belonging within our schools, and we can begin by greeting every student with a smile. Thank you for your dedication to our students and their futures. I hope you have a good weekend.