Chronic absenteeism in Swampscott Public Schools has fallen sharply since its pandemic peak but beneath the improving district-wide numbers, racial disparities persist, according to state data.
Newly published state attendance figures from the Department of Early and Secondary Education (DESE) show that African American and Hispanic/Latino students in Swampscott miss significantly more school than their white peers, both in average days absent and in chronic absenteeism rates, which is defined as missing at least 10% of the school year for any reason. The divide has remained consistent for at least seven school years.
Rachel Sturma, a guidance counselor at the high school, declined to comment when asked about the causes of chronic absenteeism and the particular challenges facing students of color. METropolitan COuncil for Educational Opportunity (METCO) leaders Krista Lynch and Temi Bailey were not available for comment prior to publication.
Chronic absenteeism across Swampscott spiked during the pandemic, peaking around 22% of students in 2021–22 before gradually receding, according to DESE’s data.
That said, over that seven school-year period, the district as a whole has consistently had better absenteeism rates than the Massachusetts averages. This year, about 15.5% of Swampscott students are chronically absent, compared with roughly 18.8% statewide, the data show.
“We are still doing better than the state,” Superintendent Jason Calichman said. “But decreasing absenteeism remains a major goal for us.”
For African American students in Swampscott, however, the picture is more troubling. Their chronic absenteeism rate climbed to 30.2% in 2020–21, about ten percentage points higher than the district as a whole that year and stands at roughly 32.5% in 2024–25, according to DESE’s data.
Hispanic/Latino students in the Swampscott School District hit their highest point in 2021–22, when about 37.1% were chronically absent. Their rate has since fallen but still hovers at 26%, several points above the district average, DESE’s data shows.
White students have had the lowest chronic absenteeism in almost every school year represented in the dataset. For the 2024-25 school year, about 11.5% of White students were chronically absent, compared with the district’s overall 15.5% and the state’s 18.8%, according to the data from DESE.
Sarah Kent, Swampscott’s director of teaching and learning, said she does not believe race itself explains the gaps.
“I couldn’t say that,” Kent said. “Every family dynamic is different, and we try to work with all families.”
Kent said the district is still trying to understand the full set of factors behind the disparities and emphasized that staff do not want to “blame” families.
“We’re asking, ‘What are the barriers, and how do we remove them?’” she said.
Both Kent and Calichman pointed to long family trips abroad often to visit relatives in other countries as one factor for some students. They also noted that Swampscott enrolls relatively small numbers of African American and Hispanic students, which can make percentage swings look dramatic from year to year, even as the pattern over time remains consistent.
A second measure, the average number of days absent, tells a similar story.
In 2020–21, the first full school year under COVID-19 disruptions, Swampscott students as a whole missed about 11 days of school on average. African American students missed 20 days, nearly double the district figure. Hispanic/Latino students averaged about 14.9 days, while white students missed roughly 11 days, according to the state data.
Absences have fallen since then, but the averages have not returned to pre-pandemic lows. In the 2024-25 school year, the district average is just under 11 days missed per student. African American students miss an average of 14.5 days, Hispanic/Latino students are absent 12.3 days, and white students miss roughly 10 days.
Kent said COVID-19 changed how families think about staying home from school.
“People stay home when they’re sick now, which is good, but attitudes around attendance have changed in lots of ways,” she said. “I couldn’t tell you exactly why or how.”
The problem is most pronounced at Swampscott High School, which has the highest chronic absenteeism rate of any grade span in the district, according to both the data and district leaders.
“The older they get, the more independent they get, and the more we need to talk about the repercussions of their choices,” Kent said.
The district has already tried one major structural change by pushing back the high school start time from 7:15 a.m. to 8:05 a.m., in hopes that more sleep would equate to better attendance. Calichman said the results so far have been “mixed.”
Students who begin missing school regularly often find it harder and harder to re-engage, he added.
“It snowballs,” Calichman said. “The more you miss, the harder it becomes to come back.”
In response to rising absences during the pandemic, Swampscott also overhauled how it tracks and responds to attendance. The district now holds monthly meetings in each building to identify students who are on pace to become chronically absent. A new data platform, Open Architects, is designed to flag patterns quickly, such as students who miss school every Monday, are routinely tardy, or are dismissed early on certain days.
“Instead of spending time creating data, we can act on it,” Kent said. “If a student has been out every Monday for a month, we’ll know instantly.”
Calichman said the district’s interventions range from phone calls and meetings with families to connecting students with social-emotional supports.
“Your success in school is tied to being there,” he said. “When students aren’t in school, they aren’t learning what we’re teaching.”
Missed days don’t just show up in grades, he said they also disrupt friendships, undermine confidence and chip away at students’ sense of belonging.
For the 2025–26 school year, the district will rely heavily on the new data platform to drive attendance interventions. Leaders say they hope faster detection leads to faster support for families.
