From Attendance to Belonging: Rethinking How Schools Measure Recovery After COVID

Working in NYC schools during and after COVID, I saw how deeply the pandemic disrupted children's lives beyond academics. Students struggled with loss, instability, and disconnection that test scores can't measure. Five years later, the shadow is till here: chronic absenteeism, unfinished learning, and emotional fatigue haven't gone away. This is a quiet crisis that is ongoing and has completely reshaped education. We've learned a lot since the beginning, and that true recovery requires empathy, creativity, and long-term commitment.

Identifying the Needs of Underserved Populations Post-COVID

For students in historically underserved communities, the pandemic amplified pre-existing inequities that municipal systems had struggled to address for decades. Food insecurity, unstable housing, and limited access to healthcare were not new issues, but COVID-19 brought them into sharper focus. In New York City, for example, more than 100,000 students were identified as living in temporary housing in the 2022-2023 school year, a number that has remained distressingly high since the pandemic began¹. These living conditions directly affect a child's ability to learn, concentrate, and participate in school life consistently.

Municipal leaders and school administrators must recognize that traditional metrics, such as standardized test scores or attendance rates, only reveal part of the picture. Emotional distress, trauma, and disengagement are harder to quantify but just as critical. To effectively serve these students, local governments need to implement trauma-informed policies across education, housing, and health services. This includes training school staff to recognize signs of trauma, expanding access to mental health professionals, and coordinating with community-based organizations that are already embedded in these neighborhoods².

Building Cross-Sector Strategies for Long-Term Recovery

True recovery for underserved populations requires coordinated, cross-sector strategies that go beyond short-term interventions. During the pandemic, cities that piloted wraparound service models - combining education, mental health, and family support - were better positioned to support their most vulnerable students. For example, the Community Schools model in NYC integrates academic instruction with health services, after-school programs, and family engagement initiatives, serving as a critical support structure for students facing multiple barriers³.

Municipal governments can play a vital role in sustaining and scaling these models by aligning funding streams and policies across departments. That means housing authorities, health departments, and education agencies must share goals and data, and collaborate on service delivery. A practical step is to establish an interagency task force focused on student well-being, which meets regularly to assess needs, track outcomes, and reallocate resources as necessary. This kind of governance infrastructure is essential to ensure that support systems are not fragmented or reactive, but responsive and anticipatory.

Re-engaging Families and Communities as Partners

Underserved populations often experience systemic exclusion from decision-making processes that directly affect their lives. During the pandemic, communication gaps between schools and families widened, especially in non-English speaking households or those without reliable internet access. Rebuilding trust and engagement with these communities is essential. Municipal agencies and school districts should prioritize culturally responsive outreach strategies, such as employing community liaisons who speak the home languages of families and understand the local context⁴.

Family engagement must go beyond parent-teacher conferences or surveys. Hosting regular community forums, co-designing programs with parents, and offering flexible meeting times can help shift the dynamic from one of top-down communication to shared ownership. When families feel heard and valued, they are more likely to participate in their children’s education and advocate for needed services. This, in turn, creates a feedback loop that strengthens the entire support system for underserved students.

Addressing Chronic Absenteeism with Creative Solutions

Chronic absenteeism has emerged as one of the most persistent challenges in the post-pandemic landscape. In New York City, nearly 40% of students were chronically absent in the 2021-2022 school year, nearly double pre-pandemic rates⁵. The reasons vary widely, from transportation barriers to caregiving responsibilities, to mental health struggles. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Interventions must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each student and their family.

Local governments can support school districts by investing in programs that address the root causes of absenteeism. For instance, providing free or low-cost transportation, hiring school-based attendance counselors, and partnering with neighborhood organizations to offer home visits are all proven strategies. Some cities have even launched text-message reminder systems that send personalized nudges to parents, a low-cost but effective method to improve attendance⁶. The key is to treat absenteeism as a symptom of deeper issues, not just a compliance problem.

Expanding Access to Mental Health Support

Mental health challenges among youth have skyrocketed, particularly in underserved communities where access to care was already limited. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts among girls aged 12-17 rose by 50% in early 2021 compared to 2019⁷. Many of these young people were navigating grief, anxiety, and isolation without adequate support. Mental health must be at the center of recovery efforts, not an afterthought.

Effective strategies include embedding licensed social workers and counselors in schools, launching school-based health clinics, and creating peer support groups. Municipal governments can also expand partnerships with community mental health providers through contracts that bring clinicians into school settings. Funding is often a barrier, but leveraging Medicaid reimbursements and federal grants like the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds can help sustain these services over time⁸. Addressing mental health holistically improves not only individual outcomes but also school climate and academic performance.

Investing in Data-Informed Decision Making

Recovery efforts must be guided by accurate, disaggregated data. Too often, data systems are siloed and do not capture the full experiences of underserved populations. Municipal leaders need to invest in integrated data platforms that track not just academic performance, but also housing stability, health access, and social service utilization. This enables a more comprehensive understanding of students' lives and allows for targeted interventions.

One practical step is to create data-sharing agreements between school districts and local agencies, with strict privacy protections in place. These agreements can facilitate early warning systems that flag students at risk of disengagement before problems escalate. Additionally, involving community stakeholders in the analysis and interpretation of data ensures that findings are contextualized and actionable. Data should not just inform policy - it should drive continuous improvement and accountability across all sectors serving youth.

Conclusion: Committing to Sustained, Equitable Change

Serving underserved populations is not about short-term fixes. It requires a sustained, intentional commitment across government sectors, guided by empathy and a willingness to adapt. The pandemic exposed the fragility of many support systems, but it also created an opening for deeper collaboration and innovation. Municipal leaders, school administrators, and community organizations must work together to build structures that not only respond to crises but also foster long-term resilience and equity.

The path forward is not easy, but it is necessary. By grounding recovery efforts in the lived experiences of students and families, and by aligning policies and resources accordingly, we can begin to repair the damage of the past and build a more just educational system for the future.

Bibliography

1. New York State Education Department. “Student Homelessness in New York State.” NYSED Data Site, 2023. https://data.nysed.gov.

2. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services.” SAMHSA TIP 57, 2014. https://store.samhsa.gov/product/TIP-57-Trauma-Informed-Care-in-Behavioral-Health-Services/SMA14-4816.

3. New York City Department of Education. “Community Schools.” NYC DOE, 2023. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/health-and-wellness/community-schools.

4. NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “State of Our Immigrant City.” MOIA Annual Report, 2022. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/immigrants/downloads/pdf/moia_annual_report_2022.pdf.

5. New York City Independent Budget Office. “Chronic Absenteeism in NYC Public Schools.” IBO Brief, 2022. https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/chronic-absenteeism-nyc-public-schools.pdf.

6. Balfanz, Robert, and Vaughan Byrnes. “Meeting the Challenge of Combating Chronic Absenteeism.” Johns Hopkins University, 2018. https://new.every1graduates.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Meeting-the-Challenge-of-Combating-Chronic-Absenteeism.pdf.

7. U.S. Surgeon General. “Protecting Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-youth-mental-health-advisory.pdf.

8. U.S. Department of Education. “Use of Funds Under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.” 2022. https://oese.ed.gov/files/2020/04/ESSER-Fund-Fact-Sheet.pdf.