DOVER — As Capital School District resumes hybrid learning, administration is working to combat decreasing attendance and multiple absences.

The district resumed hybrid instruction Jan. 11 for students in pre-K through eight, and in the district’s special programs, Kent County Community School and Kent County Intensive Learning Center. The high school began classes Jan. 19 — several days after its intended start date.

This month marks the first time many students in the district have been in school since November. The district’s younger learners came back in early November, but a wrench was thrown in the mix after the state released data that showed a surge of COVID-19 cases in Kent County. Capital leadership opted to suspend in-person classes. This week is the first time high school has been back since March.

Cathy Schreiber, supervisor of school success planning for the district, said that on average, elementary schools saw between a 4 to 8% drop in average attendance percentages from last year. That increased at the middle school level, to about 16% (William Henry was at 9%). The largest decrease came at the Kent County Intensive Learning Center, with 34%.

“We have noticed that, even looking across our data, one of the things that doesn’t necessarily reflect on the surface is that we are experiencing a larger percentage of students that are missing 10 or more absences this year,” she said.

Teams are working to reconnect students and remove the barriers to engage those students, she said.

“They’ve been making home visits, really connecting and reaching out, trying to provide additional services,” she said.

For the students who the district hasn’t been able to reach at all — a small number, according to Ms. Schreiber — administration is continuing outreach to “make sure that we can locate those students,” she said and help with the transition if they’ve moved from the district.

Right now, all schools are open to in-person learning, said Mary Cooke, director of human resources.

As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, 17 staff members were under an isolation order either from the Division of Public Health, their physician or a school nurse and 49 staff members were under quarantine, Ms. Cooke said.

Also as of Wednesday, the district had 10 students under isolation and 42 in quarantine, she said.

Staff are able to work remotely if their job responsibilities allow, she said. They are not required to have a negative test result before returning to work, she said. DPH and physicians can issue return to work/return to school letters.

“There can be a delay in DPH issuing those letters,” she said. “In the situation of a quarantine, our school nurses also have the authority to release someone to return to work or to return to school if they can document that the guidelines for doing have been met, which are satisfying the quarantine or isolation period, which is generally 10 days; absence of a fever for 24 hours without the aid of a fever-reducing medication; improvement of symptoms.”