More than 70 percent of Rochester City School District high schoolers and 57.7 percent of elementary students were chronically absent during the 2024–25 school year, numbers that district leaders and researchers describe as a defining struggle for the urban core five years after the pandemic upended American classrooms. The crisis has pushed Rochester officials to open a new Parent Center on Genesee Street this month, stocked with a food pantry, a clothing closet and a computer lab meant to knock down the everyday barriers keeping kids out of class.
A Countywide Problem With Sharper Edges in the City
The scale of Rochester's numbers stands out even against a broader Monroe County picture that is already troubling. According to Spectrum News, roughly 1 in 4 Monroe County elementary students and 1 in 3 high schoolers were chronically absent last year, with the problem also climbing in neighboring Onondaga and Erie counties as students get older. Statewide, the picture is similarly stubborn: 27 percent of New York public school students were chronically absent in 2024–25, according to WLIW, barely changed from 27.3 percent the year before and still far above pre-pandemic levels.
Federal guidelines define chronic absenteeism as missing 10 percent or more of the academic year, typically around 18 days, though New York State's official reporting excludes out-of-school suspensions and extended medical absences, per the same WLIW report. Surveys have identified suspensions and health-related challenges among reasons students miss school.
What's Actually Keeping Kids Home
A two-year survey of Rochester high school students conducted by The Children's Agenda found that illness, family emergencies, transportation issues, suspensions and mental health challenges were among the reasons students missed school. Eamonn Scanlon, director of community impact for The Children's Agenda, told Spectrum News that chronic absenteeism still has not returned to pre-pandemic levels and signals that a child is unlikely to read on grade level, graduate high school or enroll in college later in life.
Separately, survey respondents told Spectrum News that 38 percent stayed home because they or a loved one was hurt, or because of housing, utility or household instability. School suspensions also factor heavily into the equation, with Black students suspended five times as often as white students across Monroe County, according to that reporting. Mental health struggles, including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, have increased since the pandemic and leave some students unable to get out of bed, the outlet reported, while school districts with more economically disadvantaged households tend to see higher chronic absenteeism rates overall.
Community Schools Show Promise, But Unevenly
Not every district is struggling equally. Greece Central School District recorded the smallest rise in chronic absenteeism in Monroe County relative to pre-pandemic levels, just 2.2 percentage points. The district has invested heavily in the community school model, though researchers said they could not definitively explain the result, per The Children's Agenda. Within Rochester itself, Longridge Elementary School was highlighted in the group's report as a local example that reduced its chronic absenteeism rate through a community schools strategy.
Addressing the crisis, Scanlon has said, requires identifying each student's individual needs rather than leaning on a one-size-fits-all approach. Rosa, another voice cited in the Spectrum News reporting, said adults, communities and society need to develop solutions for children facing unequal opportunities. Rochester City School District has invested in the community school model.
Inside the New Parent Center
That investment includes the district's newly unveiled Parent Center, located in Rochester's 19th Ward on the Loretta Johnson Middle School campus. According to WXXI News, the center operates from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. as the official headquarters for the district's Office of Parent Engagement. The space includes a food pantry, a clothing closet, a youth zone and a computer lab for families, and it will eventually host satellite locations for community-based organizations.
Superintendent Eric Rosser, who took over the Rochester City School District on July 1, 2025, said supporting parents better equips them to support their children, and that parent centers are meant to help families navigate the education system. Rosser previously served as chief of the Poughkeepsie City School District and held administrative leadership roles in Buffalo, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., according to the Council of the Great City Schools. He has operated parent centers for more than 10 years, having started the model at Atlanta Public Schools and later creating four parent centers in Buffalo before arriving in the Rochester area.
Attendance Campaign and Broader Evidence
The new center works alongside Rochester's existing Strive for Five campaign, the district's districtwide push using data monitoring and direct family outreach to encourage students to attend school five days a week, per the News10NBC reporting cited in the research record. Outside evidence also points toward health-based interventions as a lever for improving attendance: a study published in JAMA Network Open in May 2025 found that school districts operating on-site health clinics saw a 15 percent reduction in student chronic absenteeism risk, based on four years of data across 66,000 students, according to a separate Hoodline report on a similar clinic model elsewhere.
Whether Rochester's new parent center and expanded community school investments can meaningfully move the needle on numbers as steep as 70 percent chronic absenteeism remains to be seen. For now, district leaders are betting that addressing the everyday obstacles families face, from transportation to housing instability to mental health, will do more than attendance slogans alone.
