Cherry Hill district’s pre-K students are absent from school almost as much as seniors
While still below statewide averages, the district says it's taking steps to get more of its youngest learners to school as it looks to expand the program.
Getting all pre-Kindergarten students to consistently attend school has proven to be a challenge as the Cherry Hill district rapidly expands its program for early learners.
Absenteeism rates among the district’s pre-K students is second only to Cherry Hill high school seniors, the grade with the highest chronic absenteeism rate, according to state data. The district’s experience is similar to other districts rolling out pre-K programs with state funding, which reaches $1.4 billion in the latest budget.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that preschool had one of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism,” Farrah Mahan, assistant superintendent for pre-K to grade 12 and curriculum, told school board members at this week’s meeting. She explained some tactics being used to combat high absenteeism.
The chronic absenteeism rate, a widely used measure in education, shows the percentage of students absent 10% or more days in the school year.
In Cherry Hill public schools in 2024-25, the latest year available, the rate for Cherry Hill pre-K students was 23.5% compared with a statewide average of 29.9%, according to the New Jersey Education Department School Performance Reports.
Overall, the district’s rate was 14%, slightly less than the state average of 14.4%. However, 25.8% of all high school seniors were chronically absent — more than the statewide average of 21%.
The district’s preschool social workers and other staff members have been working with parents to get the youngest children to attend school, Mahan said.
“They’ve really been acting almost as like a social service agency, which is really sometimes what our families need, making sure that they are connected to the appropriate resources that are available in the community to ensure that their child is able to get to school on a daily basis,” she told board members.
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Sometimes it is as simple as greeting students at the bus or as they’re exiting the family car in the morning or providing extra attention during the school day, she said.
“But we’ve also had some tough conversations like, this really matters,” Mahan said. “When you were in a private preschool location, maybe it was OK to take a vacation that second week, because it was more convenient and a little bit cheaper for families. But really expect your preschooler, if they’re enrolled in the program, to be in school.”
She said the focus has resulted in reducing the chronic absenteeism rates among the preschoolers.
Mahan joked that next week when schools open on Wednesday she looks forward to welcoming the Class of 2041.
Pre-K enrollment has increased sharply in Cherry Hill and some other districts as former Gov. Phil Murphy and Gov. Mikie Sherrill have supported free and expanded access to early childhood education.
Cherry Hill and other districts have had to rely heavily on private providers to help take on the growing enrollment as parents shift from privately paid to publicly funded preschool. The district has two district preschool locations and uses nine private providers.
With its expansion to 11 sites last year, the district was able to clear the initial wait list, Mahan said. All 559 students who applied for a pre-K seat were accepted, so the district opened up the list to additional families. A total of 93 applied and the district could offer spots for 34.
In the new school year, nearly 900 preschoolers have been offered spots. The total will include 740 general education seats, 55 preschool inclusion seats, and 96 disabled student seats, Mahan said.
The district’s program has grown from 17 classrooms after preschool expansion was announced in 2023 to 53 classrooms in the 2026-27 school year.
Mahan said the goal is to eventually expand to a projected 1,700 seats — more than a 90% increase over this coming year’s group. She said 110 classrooms will be needed to accommodate the enrollment.
The district’s private providers for the new school year are Adventure Kids, Cadence Academy, Discovery Corner, Goddard School, KinderCare, Lightbridge Academy. Primrose School, Chesterbrook Academy of Voorhees, Mosaic Early Learning of Oakland. The two in-district locations are at Kilmer Elementary School and the Malberg Early Childhood Center.
“Children who participate in early childhood education programs generally enter kindergarten with stronger foundational skills,” Mahan told the board. “The research in early childhood education states that early learning environments foster essential language skills, early literacy, and basic math concepts,” she said.
Supervision of curriculum and teaching at all 11 locations is important to the preschool program, she explained.
“It is imperative that we have consistency across all of our locations. So when we speak about our preschool private provider locations and our in-district locations, we talk about consistency across all of our guidelines, our curriculum,” Mahan said.
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