NEW CASTLE, Ind. (WISH) — New Castle Community Schools’ attendance liaison on Wednesday said the key to solving chronic absenteeism is to build trusting relationships with the students.

Katie Smith is now in her second school year as attendance liaison for New Castle’s middle and high schools. She said she has no way of knowing from the beginning what a student has gone through in life, so she first works to build trust with the student before talking to them about what their home life looks like and what their school experience has been like in the past.

“I’m a firm believer that chronic school absenteeism is not a choice,” she said. “No one wakes up every day not wanting to come to school and be successful, that there are always barriers that lay in the way.”

Statewide, roughly 1-in-5 students were chronically absent last year, meaning they missed 10% or more of the instructional days in a given year. Among high schoolers, the rate was 1-in-3. The numbers led the General Assembly to pass a law this year to require schools to develop intervention plans for chronically absent students in grades K through 6.

During the 2022-2023 school year, New Castle’s Assistant Superintendent Adam McDaniel said about 32% of his high school students were chronically absent.

That August, just in time for the 2023-2024 school year, New Castle Community Schools hired Smith. McDaniel said the school corporation created and funded Smith’s position using a federal school improvement grant.

Smith said that in many cases, chronically absent students work long hours or help care for a sibling or a relative. The death of a parent is a frequent culprit as well. She said that in most cases, the resources needed to help a student already exist in the community, and it’s merely a question of connecting with them. Those can include other resources within the school, such as counselors, or resources elsewhere in the community.

School attendance data suggest Smith’s approach is working.

McDaniel said in Smith’s first year, chronic absenteeism among New Castle high schoolers dropped by 11%. Middle school absenteeism dropped by 7%. Smith said last year, she worked with Henry County’s juvenile court system on 25 chronic absenteeism cases, a tactic she uses only as a last resort. So far this year, she said she has only had to go to the court for three cases.

Kelsie Williams is among that group. Now, a sophomore at New Castle High School, she told News 8 that poor grades and the death of a parent discouraged her from going to school last year. She began working with Smith, who helped her learn positive coping skills.

“She gave me the motivation and gave me the support that I was looking for and needed, and she told me to just take it one day at a time and one step at a time because practice makes perfect,” she said. “She would come to my classrooms every day, ask me how things are going, ask me if I needed help on work and owuld just make sure I was here every day at school.”

Smith said officials at any school system looking to replicate her success have to understand they can’t solve the problem overnight. She said officials have to be realistic about what they can solve with the resources they have.

“This is not something that people have been ignoring, it’s just a really heavy lift, and if you can find the right recipe with the right people in place, then you might be able to move the needle,” she said.

McDaniel said the federal grant will fund Smith’s position through the end of the 2025-2026 school year. After that, he said school officials hope to fund her position permanently through their own budget.