With the start of the school year beginning on Thursday for many school districts, educators of New Haven Public Schools went on a community tour to promote engagement and encourage school attendance.
The tour was conducted in groups with NHPS Superintendent Madeline Negron, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and community volunteers.
The superintendent said the main purpose of the campaign is to inform parents of incoming kindergartners and ninth graders about the importance of attending school every day.
“Every day that a child is not in their seats that's a day of loss of learning and our children cannot afford that.”
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She said the reason they focused on those grades specifically is because those are the grades where the district has noticed that students have a hard time adjusting.
"There's nothing like a personal connection and getting a parent if they are nervous about sending their kid, to get reassurance from us as representatives of the district to say listen we got you, we're going to take good care of your kid,” said Negron.
Last year NHPS saw a significant drop in student attendance in the weeks leading up to the winter break and in the weeks leading up to the end of the year.
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“On June 4th our rate was 34.1% and in a matter of nine days, by the time we came to June 18th, that had gone up to 37.5%,” Negron said.
Vilmarie Ortega is one of the parents that received a visit from the school leaders.
Ortega has a son who will begin kindergarten on Thursday.
She shared she’s been feeling anxious to send her kid to school but felt more reassured following the home visit.
Ortega along with the families were given a school bag with supplies including crayons, notebooks and reading materials along with a tracker sheet that will allow parents to know how many days of school they should avoid missing each month.
“This is good because I get to see everything, when they’re off, half days and things like that,” said Ortega.
Dania Torres, the dropout prevention specialist with the New Haven Board of Education, said the visits were all also about reassuring families that their kids will be safe and secure in their care.
“At school we have the best staff to protect them and to provide all the resources that we have for them,” said Torres.
