At Colonial School DistrictET in New Castle County, the average student missed 13.2 days of school in 2024-25. That is nearly four full days more than the Delaware average of 9.6. The district's visiting teachers, its Communities in Schools partnership at William Penn High School, and a first-of-its-kind health data collaboration with Nemours Children's Health have all made real progress: Colonial's chronic absenteeism rate dropped 12.9 percentage points from its 2022 peak of 37.8%. But at 24.9%, one in four students still misses 10% or more of the school year, and the gap between Colonial and the rest of the state has barely moved.

The New Castle County outlier

Among Delaware's four northern New Castle County districts, Colonial stands alone. BrandywineET has pulled its chronic rate down to 15.7%, below the state average of 17.1%. Red ClayET sits at 16.8%. Even ChristinaET, which shares Colonial's urban demographics and poverty profile, has dropped to 19.9%.

Colonial's 24.9% is 5.0 percentage points higher than the next-worst NCC peer and 7.7 points above the state average.

Only Capital School DistrictET in Dover, at 26.1%, has a higher rate among districts serving more than 1,000 students. Colonial ranks second-worst in the state on that list.

The raw count puts this in perspective. Of Colonial's 9,875 students, 2,456 were chronically absent in 2024-25. That is more students than the entire enrollment of 15 of Delaware's charter schools.

A recovery that stalled, then lurched forward

Colonial's trajectory since the pandemic has been uneven. From a 2022 peak of 37.8%, the district posted a strong 8.7-point drop in 2023. Then it stalled: the rate actually ticked up 0.7 points in 2024, to 29.8%, even as every other large NCC district improved. In 2025, Colonial finally resumed its decline with a 4.9-point drop.

The state, by contrast, improved in a straight line: -2.4, -2.9, and -3.4 percentage points in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Delaware overall has recovered 81% of the way back to its pre-COVID baseline. Colonial has recovered 70%.

That 2024 stall matters. Colonial's pre-COVID rate was 19.3% in 2019, already 4.2 points above the state average of 15.1%. At 24.9%, the district remains 5.6 points above where it started. The pandemic did not create Colonial's attendance problem. It deepened a disparity that already existed.

Where the crisis concentrates

The grade-level data reveals a district split in two. Colonial's elementary grades (K-5) have chronic rates between 11.3% and 17.5%, roughly in line with the state average. Starting in sixth grade, the picture changes: 28.6% of sixth graders, 36.0% of seventh graders, and 35.0% of eighth graders are chronically absent. By ninth grade, the rate hits 38.7%, the worst of any grade in the district.

Nearly two in five Colonial ninth graders miss more than 10% of the school year. At William Penn High School, the district's sole traditional high school, grades 10-12 range from 33.1% to 38.6%.

The subgroup picture carries a different kind of surprise. Colonial's white students are chronically absent at 24.7%, 10.7 percentage points above the state average for white students (14.0%). That is the widest gap of any major racial subgroup between Colonial and the state. Black students at Colonial are absent at 24.2%, 3.9 points above the statewide Black rate of 20.3%. Hispanic students sit at 27.0%, 8.6 points above the state Hispanic rate.

Poverty compounds the picture but does not explain the whole thing. Colonial's economically disadvantaged students are chronically absent at 32.2%, while its non-economically-disadvantaged students are at 20.7%. That 11.5-point poverty gap matters, but the non-economically-disadvantaged rate of 20.7% is itself above the state average for all students. Something beyond income is driving absences across Colonial's student body.

The district's 360 students who are currently homeless face the starkest odds: 50.3% are chronically absent, meaning more than half miss at least 10% of the school year.

Health, not just behavior

Colonial has made one bet that no other Delaware district has. In August 2021, the district launched D.A.S.H., a partnership with Nemours Children's Health and the Delaware Health Information Network, to link student attendance records with medical data. Parents who opt in allow the district to share attendance patterns and IEP/504 status with their child's doctor. When a student hits an absence threshold, primary care providers receive an alert and can reach out to the family.

"The goal is simple – keep kids in school. But to do this we must understand why they are chronically absent." Jon Cooper, Colonial School District Director of Health and Wellness. Source

The premise is that chronic absenteeism in high-poverty districts often has medical roots: asthma flare-ups, untreated dental problems, mental health crises. A Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analysis found health-related barriers account for a significant share of chronic absences nationally, particularly in communities with limited access to primary care.

Colonial's D.A.S.H. pilot is one of only two such projects in the country. No public outcome data has been released. Whether the model has contributed to the 2025 improvement, or whether the improvement reflects broader post-pandemic normalization, remains an open question.

Four districts, four paths

The divergence among New Castle County's four traditional districts raises a structural question. All four serve the same metropolitan area. All four experienced the same COVID attendance shock. Brandywine, now at 15.7%, has essentially returned to its pre-COVID baseline. Colonial, at 24.9%, has not.

Part of the answer is composition. Colonial's economically disadvantaged share is higher than Brandywine's. But composition does not explain why Colonial's white students are absent at 10.7 points above their statewide peers, or why the district's non-economically-disadvantaged students are absent at rates that exceed the state average for all students.

Colonial Superintendent Jeffrey Menzer has described attendance as "the most important determinant of passing classes and graduating" and has invested in Communities in Schools, which places five support workers at William Penn High School to provide tutoring, counseling, and crisis intervention. The high school's dropout rate fell from 7.0% in 2012 to 1.7% by 2021. But the chronic absenteeism problem extends across the entire district, including elementary schools where the rates are manageable and middle schools where they are not.

What comes next

Colonial's 4.9-point drop in 2025, following a year in which the rate actually rose, signals the district may have broken through its 2024 plateau. If it sustains that pace, it could reach its pre-COVID rate of 19.3% within two years. Whether the D.A.S.H. pilot scales beyond Colonial to other high-need districts, and whether it produces measurable results, will shape how Delaware approaches the intersection of health and attendance statewide.

The more pressing issue is the secondary grades. Colonial keeps elementary students in school at rates comparable to the state average. The collapse in attendance that begins in sixth grade and peaks in ninth points to a transition problem, not a district-wide one. Whatever breaks between fifth and sixth grade at Colonial is where 2,456 chronically absent students become a structural pattern rather than a collection of individual cases.

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