Karla Silvestre remembers the advice she got when her children were young: Unless the kid has a fever or is throwing up, send them to school.

“That’s what I followed,” the Montgomery County school board member said.

But the pandemic upended that advice, replacing it with a more restrictive adage: When you’re sick, stay home.

And that’s part of the reason school attendance still hasn’t bounced back since 2020, district leaders say.

“We are now in that in-between gray zone of, am I ultra sensitive to every health ailment?” Montgomery County Superintendent Thomas Taylor said. “Are they feeling 80% or are they feeling 20%? You know, there’s a big difference.”

Already this year, roughly 15% of Montgomery County students are considered chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of class days. The reasons are numerous, ranging from unreliable transportation to fear of bullying to grueling work schedules.

Regardless, the consequence is the same. Kids can’t learn if they’re not in the classroom. They miss out on the free meals and counseling that schools provide. And research shows that chronically absent students are at higher risk of illiteracy and eventually dropping out.

The district needs to clarify its message to parents about the importance of getting their children to school each day, Taylor said.

“We’ve, if anything, sent some mixed messages,” he said. “We need to be crystal clear about what the expectations are, why the expectations are in place, and what the value is in following through with those expectations.”

Combating chronic absenteeism is far from just an MCPS problem, with about a quarter of Maryland students hitting that undesirable benchmark last year. Though it’s an improvement from the months directly following the pandemic, it still dramatically eclipses the state’s pre-2020 rate.

The problem isn’t evenly spread. Hispanic students in Montgomery County are far more likely to miss school than children of other ethnicities. More than 1 in 5 Hispanic students were chronically absent so far this year.

Students who are learning English were also less likely than the broader school population to consistently come to school.

State leaders have said they’re concerned the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration could lead some families to stay home for fear of being targeted near campus.

‘We so want your child here at school’

MCPS leaders also say they’re worried that certain communities are becoming hotspots for attendance problems, pointing to the Einstein and Gaithersburg school clusters.

They pledged to monitor the data as the year progresses so they can target specific families with interventions. They say home visits are an effective tool, but that every case requires its own plan.

“There is no single strategy that will move our student attendance in the right direction,” said Steve Neff, who promotes attendance in MCPS. “We’re staying away from anything sort of threatening or punitive, and we’re really just trying to raise awareness.”

That’s how Principal Kyle Heatwole approaches attendance, too. The Singer Elementary School leader said his staff focuses on fostering relationships with parents and impressing upon them the importance of consistently coming to class.

“I stress to the teachers, the classroom teachers, that I really want them to be that primary outreach person to the parent,” he said. “I really want them to focus on maintaining that positive message of ‘Oh, we so want your child here at school. We missed them so much yesterday.’”

Ultimately, though, there can be consequences. District officials can turn to the courts if a student racks up “severe, persistent, and unexcused absences” — which can be treated as a misdemeanor charge for the parent.

“The district views this statutory action as a measure of last resort, invoked only when all supportive interventions have been exhausted,” MCPS documents state.

Taylor plans to provide monthly attendance reports to the school board. Principals will be closely tracking their data, too.

“We start to see more of the attendance concerns come to light in the later months, in January and February,” Heatwole cautioned.