This fall, from September to December, the average Needham High School student missed 23 classes, excused or unexcused.
A snapshot of NHS attendance shared with the school committee March 3 reflected attendance numbers that are not great, and not getting better, with just over 1,500 students combining to miss more than 35,000 classes in the first semester of the 2025-26 academic year. With 1,500 students recording absences, that means around 100 Needham High students had perfect attendance.
Data from the past two years shows little change. Although NHS saw a slight decrease in the number of student absences overall, class absences and average absences per student increased.
The numbers, emphasized principal Aaron Sicotte and assistant principal Mary Kay Alessi, need to be considered in the context of a particularly bad cold and flu season. The data, they said, is also incomplete until the year’s end and should be seen as such.
Despite attendance issues, many students do not ultimately lose course credit thanks to an attendance policy that allows them to earn credit back. Now in year four of its implementation, the policy states that six absences in a quarter will result in the loss of one course credit. Lost credit can be earned back the following term if students improve attendance in that class. Credit lost in the final quarter cannot be earned back.
“We have done a lot of data analysis and found that this policy is actually more supportive and results in fewer credits lost by students,” Alessi said.
So far, the policy has resulted in 88 credit losses this academic year, compared to 106 in the 2024-25 academic year. Fifty-eight of the 235 credits lost in the first term were earned back, and 16 of the 88 students who lost credit in the first quarter earned it back in the second. Students who lost credit in Quarter Two have not yet been able to earn it back — but most will by end of year, said Sicotte.
“Five absences in any given course in a particular quarter [not semester] is a fair amount that a student could have without any direct penalty beyond the loss of learning,” Sicotte said.
He noted that the penalty of a credit loss would not alter a student’s graduation path, given that most NHS students graduate with credits in the high 90s or low 100s, exceeding the 92-credit threshold. In fact, credit losses and attendance rates seem to have little impact on NHS students’ academic performance as a whole, with Needham Public Schools ranking number one in the Commonwealth, according to 2025 MCAS assessment data.
Nevertheless, Sicotte acknowledges attendance numbers are not where NHS would like them to be.
“I don’t want to make any firm conclusions based on where we are right now, at this snapshot,” he said. “[But] with the snapshot, reacting to that, I would say I would love to have seen further improvements.”
Reasons for high numbers of absenteeism are, in part, a result of new trends, Sicotte told the school committee. More families have begun scheduling vacations while school is still in session, commitment to club sports and competitions has increased, and there is greater support than ever before for mental health days. Students often miss the first block of a class, resulting in a recorded absence even if they are present the rest of the school day. And, while attendance rates have risen since the pandemic, COVID-19 had a dramatic impact that remains.
“In general, we’re looking for constant improvement [in attendance rates],” Sicotte said. “And there were a couple areas, particularly among subgroups, where there was a little step back so far.”
According to the “snapshot” charts shared with the school committee, Black/Brown, Hispanic and METCO students (students of color voluntarily attending predominantly white, public, suburban schools) — though a smaller percentage of the student population — share a much larger portion of the credit losses compared to their peers (See Charts). This is also true of former English learners, and students in the IEP programs (See Charts). Though, with fewer people in these groups, Alessi and Sicotte emphasized the data can be greatly impacted by one student’s behavior.
Sicotte’s focus in light of these results is to build a sense of belonging for every student at NHS.
“For some of our subgroups, this is a space that’s not always as welcoming as we’re striving to make it, and that’s something that we’re trying to be honest about acknowledging and working on,” he said.
“This is a community that’s predominantly white and predominantly financially comfortable,” Sicotte continued. “If you’re not in those categories, you can feel ‘othered’ at times. [For example], coming back from a vacation like the February break, the conversations are: ‘Where did you go?’ And people are talking about some incredible trips abroad. And if you’re not in that situation where your family is able to do that, you feel, often, a discomfort. You don’t feel the same connection, same opportunity and experiences as some of your classmates.”
School committee member Matt Spengler read a statement in response to Alessi and Sicotte’s presentation on March 3, questioning the equity of the attendance policy and calling for a formal review.
“Even though the policy is neutral in design, its impact is disproportionately affecting certain student groups; and thus, we have an equity issue,” Spengler said.
Sicotte agrees with Spengler’s desire for more data and clarity, but is unsure the policy is to blame. He hopes to examine not just the policy, but deeper issues for absences.
The best way to do that is to call in the experts, Sicotte said — outside companies prepared to come alongside schools looking for clarity in particular areas. Sicotte is currently in conversation with NPS superintendent Dan Gutekanst about the best way to move forward, and expects they will be partnering with external experts in the near future.
“At the core of it, we’re not looking to just penalize kids or punish them for the sake of punishing them,” said Sicotte. “The credit is really there as incentive to make sure that they’re attending school and in classrooms, so if they improve the following quarter, that’s the goal. We want them sitting in class. We want them experiencing the in-person conversations.”
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