Thousands of Boston students returning to class for new school year

Thousands of students teachers and staff will be back in class Thursday for the first day of classes at Boston Citizens Schools with lots of moving pieces involved in the state s largest district More than students and nearly employees will return to Boston s elementary middle and high schools Administrators for BPS have already been hard at work looking to address chronic absenteeism members of BPS joined more than contributors from the BPS Engagement Center to go door-to-door looking to get students ready to go back to school Included in that task force Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper who went to the homes of students marked with chronic absenteeism last year hoping to help those students with whatever caused those absences Wu and Skipper commented the undertaking is about more than just telling kids to stay in school it is about outreach and encouragement as well as listening to students There s so plenty of reasons why our students struggle to go to school Skipper commented Mental physical condition sometimes they re working sometimes they have to bring an income in or they have to take care of other siblings So there s lots of reasons that prevent them from being able to go that s not as simple as they don t want to' I know our distrcit continues to stand strong Wu mentioned Whatever wer can do to protect our region memebrs wheatever we can do to empower our students and their familes This city is not gonna back down and we re gonna keep moving forward Skipper mentioned that BPS have seen a percent drop in absenteeism over the last four years and they re hoping to improve those numbers this school year