FARMINGTON — Attendance data presented to the Regional School Unit 9 board of directors May 12 showed most schools continue to recover from elevated absenteeism rates recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic years. However, Superintendent Christian Elkington said family vacations during school days may be an emerging concern.

Districtwide absenteeism for the 2025-26 school year was 5.8%, down from 11.58% in 2021-22, while chronic absenteeism fell to 15.63% from 41.07% over the same period. The improvement reflects a push to monitor attendance more closely, communicate with families and respond earlier when students begin missing school, but Elkington said the district is still working to sustain attendance gains beyond the first quarter.

Elkington attributed the improvement to “a districtwide focus and concerted effort by staff and admin to work with our students and parents.”

“Schools have stepped up communications and have kept an eye on individual and school results,” Elkington said.

Chronic absenteeism is defined by state and federal education departments as missing 10% of the total school days for any reason, Elkington said.

“This changes during the year as more student days are completed,” Elkington said. “With a 175-day student year it means 17+ days a student is not in school.”

Elkington said the district does not expect students to have perfect attendance, but chronic absenteeism can add up to significant missed instructional time.

“We don’t expect anyone to have perfect attendance and understand that students get sick,” Elkington said. “Missing 17+ days is a lot of instructional time to miss though. A student’s time with teachers is precious, especially during a student’s early formative years where learning and practicing new skills is a key to future student success.”

Elkington said one issue administrators are watching is whether more families are taking vacations during school days.

“We believe that family vacations during school days are growing in number,” Elkington said. “We need to be able to more easily track it to see if it is indeed growing and may be one of the causes of our attendance concerns.”

According to figures presented to the board, Academy Hill School reported a 3.92% absenteeism rate and a 9.19% chronic absenteeism rate for the current school year. G.D. Cushing School reported 3.78% absenteeism and 8.08% chronic absenteeism.

The chronic absentee rate reflects the number of students overall who have missed 10% or more school days.

W.G. Mallett School reported 5.16% absenteeism and 14.04% chronic absenteeism. Cascade Brook School reported 5.88% absenteeism and 17.65% chronic absenteeism.

At Cape Cod Hill School, absenteeism was listed at 6.18%, with chronic absenteeism at 16.46%. Mt. Blue High School reported a 6.25% absenteeism rate and 15.8% chronic absenteeism rate. Mt. Blue Middle School reported 6.44% absenteeism and 18.62% chronic absenteeism.

Elkington said the district’s work this year has included staff reviewing attendance data for individual students, classes, grade levels and schools.

“It is a continual staff effort and focus, either individually or in groups or teams, looking at their data for individual students, a class, a grade level or a school,” Elkington said.

He said family outreach and student engagement remain central to the district’s attendance work.

“Calling home and working more closely with families along with working more closely with students in building a mindset of not to miss if at all possible is the key,” Elkington said.

Attendance remains strongest early in the school year, Elkington said, but maintaining that momentum into later quarters remains a challenge.

“Each of the last four years our first quarter attendance gets better and better at almost every school,” Elkington said.

Elkington said the district needs to build that same focus and engagement into the second and third quarters.

District data showed first-quarter absenteeism at 5.8% for 2025-26, while second-quarter absenteeism rose to 7.86% and third-quarter absenteeism rose to 8.44%. Chronic absenteeism also increased as the year progressed, from 15.63% in the first quarter to 28.57% in the second quarter and 30.16% in the third quarter.

The April 1 student count showed 2,161 students attending RSU 9 schools in 2025-26, including 1,511 students in pre-K through grade 8 and 650 students in grades 9-12. That was 57 fewer students than the district’s October 2025 enrollment count of 2,218.