Pilot program helping ‘targeted interventions’ for absent students, says N.B. government

The New Brunswick government is trying to get a handle on chronic school absenteeism.

The New Brunswick government says a pilot program which keeps some students out of class two Fridays a month is showing positive signs in addressing chronic absenteeism.

But official data is still to come.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood answered questions about its effort to reduce chronic absenteeism before a legislative committee on Wednesday.

The percentage of students who miss more than 10 per cent of instructional time (about 18 days) during a school year has doubled since the pandemic.

For the 2024-25 school year, 32.3 per cent of K-12 students provincewide were chronically absent: 24.4 per cent for elementary school students, 34 per cent for middle school students and 41.5 per cent for high school students.

Deputy Minister Ryan Donaghy said schools have been “going to the source and going student by student” to try and address marginal school attendance.

“You really have to go to that level of calling and trying to figure out if there are impediments to that child getting to school, and can you then alleviate those impediments,” said Donaghy.

The department was also questioned about a pilot program launched last fall, scheduling two professional development days a month at 37 anglophone schools. When announced last June, Education and Early Childhood Education Minister Claire Johnson said there was evidence the program could help improve math and reading scores, as well as improve chronic absenteeism.

Donaghy said scheduled time for professional development has allowed staff to develop “targeted interventions” for a number of student issues, including chronic absenteeism.

“That is where anecdotally, early on in this pilot, the real magic is happening,” he said. “We’ll see if the data backs that up.”

The anglophone pilot program is based on a separate pilot program carried out in two francophone school districts.

Deputy Minister Julie Beaulieu Mason said the francophone program had no data showing its effects on assessment scores, but said it had yielded “stable, if not some improvement” on chronic absenteeism.

Mason also said the francophone program was developed partially to address the number of students who were consistently missing class to compete in non-school sporting events.

“It permits those kids to participate in their hockey tournament without impacting absenteeism, so that’s been a good thing,” said Mason.

“We’ve seen that grow over time, where students are more and more absent on those Fridays because of those types of tournaments. That contributes to our chronic absenteeism challenges.”

The PD day pilot program has received criticism from parents and education experts who are concerned about students being out of the classroom. The pilot program has received support from the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association.

Progressive Conservative MLA Ian Lee, who was part of Wednesday’s standing committee on public accounts, said he wasn’t convinced the PD day pilot program would address chronic absenteeism or improve test scores.

“I’m not sure how that translates into benefits for students,” he said.

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