A recent report by the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration (CCERC) highlights how home visits are transforming student attendance in Connecticut. The Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP) demonstrates that personalized support directly in students’ homes can make a real difference.
Launched during the pandemic in the summer of 2021, LEAP targets students at risk of chronic absenteeism by fostering positive home-school connections. At the heart of LEAP’s effectiveness are home visits that focus on understanding families’ strengths, aspirations, and barriers to attendance. Conducted by trained staff and community members, these visits are culturally responsive and adaptable to family preferences.
This approach ensures that interventions are targeted and effective by identifying students in need through school attendance data, tracking their progress, and tailoring support based on insights from families. Almost all of the participating districts saw a boost in attendance rates, leading to an average increase of nearly 15 percentage points during the 2021–22 school year. Dramatic improvements were seen in districts like Hartford Public Schools, where attendance rates jumped by nearly 30 percent. The CCERC report also emphasizes best practices that enhance the program’s success: paying home visitors, ensuring their safety, connecting families to visitors who speak their home language, and repeating visits to build stronger connections with families.
As LEAP’s success indicates, sometimes it takes going door-to-door to reconnect with students and families.
Source: Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration. (2022). An evaluation of the effectiveness of home visits for re-engaging students who were chronically absent in the era of COVID-19.
