Students in central Pennsylvania cannot succeed in school if the barriers keeping them out of the classroom go unaddressed. Chronic absenteeism and low performance are not failures of teachers or students; they are the predictable result of asking schools to solve poverty with test prep rather than coordinated support.<\/p>\n
Across our region, schools serve growing numbers of students who arrive hungry, cope with untreated mental health needs, experience housing instability or carry trauma that makes concentrating in class nearly impossible.<\/p>\n
According to Pennsylvania Department of Education data for 2022\u201323, Dauphin County is home to 15 of the commonwealth\u2019s lowest-performing schools, Lebanon County has four, Lancaster County has 15 and York County has eight. These schools differ in size and governance, but they share one defining trait: they serve students whose basic needs are not consistently met and who lack embedded non-academic supports.<\/p>\n
At the same time, chronic absenteeism has surged. In Pennsylvania, the share of chronically absent students jumped to more than a quarter of all students in 2021\u201322 and has remained stubbornly high. Nationally, roughly 30% of students were chronically absent that year, with more than 13 million empty classroom seats every day.<\/p>\n
You cannot teach algebra, writing or workforce skills to students who are not present, and you cannot build strong local economies on a foundation of interrupted schooling.<\/p>\n
Educators are working harder than ever, layering new curricula, interventions and accountability demands onto the school day. But research from Harvard\u2019s EdRedesign initiative underscores a hard truth: students spend only a small fraction of their waking hours in school. Housing, health, transportation and neighborhood conditions shape learning far more than any single teacher or lesson plan.<\/p>\n
Traditional approaches to attendance lean heavily on punishment and remediation \u2014 truancy letters, court referrals, detentions or afterschool test prep \u2014 without addressing why students are missing school in the first place. Attendance is a powerful predictor of long-term outcomes, yet accountability systems still treat it as secondary. When we ignore hunger, housing instability and mental health needs, we guarantee absenteeism and low achievement, then blame schools for outcomes they cannot control alone. This is not a school failure; it is a systems failure.<\/p>\n
We see this every day in our local schools. In Lebanon County, we\u2019ve watched a student\u2019s attendance rebound simply because we were able to offer them a free haircut \u2014 restoring dignity and confidence that made walking into school feel possible again. In York County, we\u2019ve seen students who were missing school regularly begin attending every day after receiving basic hygiene items like deodorant, clean underwear and other essentials. These are not complicated interventions, but they are transformative when someone is paying attention.<\/p>\n
The good news is that we know what works: sustained, relationship-based wraparound supports embedded in the school day. A large, long-term study led by researchers affiliated with Harvard\u2019s EdRedesign and Opportunity Insights followed millions of students to evaluate Communities In Schools, the nation\u2019s largest provider of integrated student supports.<\/p>\n
The study found that three years of exposure in middle school increased high school graduation rates for high-risk students by about five percentage points and raised two-year college enrollment by nearly nine points. It also documented immediate gains in attendance, test scores and reductions in suspensions \u2014 improvements that predicted substantial long-run benefits.<\/p>\n
By age 27, students who received sustained supports earned significantly more each year and were projected to earn tens of thousands of dollars more over their lifetimes. The public return on investment was equally striking: roughly $3,000 per student over three years generated more than twice that amount in additional lifetime federal tax revenue alone, before accounting for reduced costs tied to unemployment, justice involvement, or poor health.<\/p>\n
Wraparound supports are not just compassionate policy; they are sound economic development.<\/p>\n
This approach is not theoretical. Communities In Schools serves about 2 million students in thousands of schools across 29 states and the District of Columbia. In practice, integrated student supports mean trained coordinators embedded in school buildings who track attendance and behavior data, build trusting relationships with students and families, and connect them to concrete resources.<\/p>\n
When a student starts missing school because a parent lost transportation, a coordinator can help secure bus passes or carpools. When anxiety overwhelms a student, the coordinator can connect them to counseling and create a safe space in the building. The relationship itself is the intervention.<\/p>\n
For central Pennsylvania, the stakes are educational and economic. Each student who drops out represents hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost lifetime earnings. Many of our lowest-performing schools also serve large numbers of students experiencing homelessness or deep poverty \u2014 conditions closely linked to chronic absenteeism without targeted support. When we fail to embed wraparound services, we ask teachers to do the impossible \u2014 and accept widening gaps as inevitable.<\/p>\n
We do not have to accept that outcome; chronic absenteeism is not inevitable \u2014 it is a signal. When we invest in coordinated, school-based wraparound supports through trusted partners like Communities In Schools of Pennsylvania, we address attendance at its root rather than chasing symptoms. If we want students to show up, we must first ensure they are supported when they do. When students are present and ready to learn, teachers can teach, schools can succeed and central Pennsylvania\u2019s communities grow stronger as a result.<\/p>\n