CDE Field Trips - 10/21/24: Commissioner's Chat Garfield RE-2 Story

Students in Garfield RE-2 perform in an assembly

Like many school districts, Garfield RE-2 School District on the Western Slope had a problem getting kids to consistently come to school after the pandemic, when only 86% of the students were attending school every day. 

The district worked hard and put a lot of time and effort into improving its attendance and made some of the biggest strides in the state last year, cutting its chronic absenteeism rate in half to 13.9% and improving its daily attendance rate by 2.1% to 94.2% in 2023-24.

"We knew the best way to move the needle with all of our kids was ultimately, we needed to have students with us every day in order to be able to reach those achievement levels," said Superintendent Heather Grumley, who met with Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova recently to explain how her district made such an impact.

"Families needed to understand that in order to learn you need to bring your kids to school," Grumley said. The district started a working group with improving attendance as its No. 1 goal. The district removed barriers standing in the way of kids getting to school and communicated with parents and students. Or, as Ms. Grumley put it, "communicating, communicating, communicating and communicating the same redundancy that every school day matters."

Grumley worked with Assistant Superintendent Lisa Pierce on the plan, which included making sure parents of elementary school students knew the importance of regular attendance. And they also worked with high school students who had become disengaged. They took it step by step at first until the bigger problem was more manageable. 

"When we started brainstorming, it all came down to consistency," Pierce said. "We all need to do the same thing across the district. We need to run a campaign. We are a four-day school district, so missing one day of the week is 25% of our time. We went out on community tours to convince the community. We would say, 'Yes, you are right. It is hard. But the easiest way to avoid any of the consequences -- just come to school!"

See the whole interview here on the Field Trips webpage.