When students miss a lot of school, the reasons why are rarely simple.

The Princeton Area Community Foundation learned this when it set out to increase attendance rates in Mercer County schools through its All Kids Thrive (AKT) Initiative, created in 2018.

The Community Foundation worked with local educational and community leaders to establish THE (Trenton, Hamilton, Ewing) Mercer Community School Coalition, comprised of superintendents and educators from the Trenton, Hamilton, and Ewing school districts, along with leaders from the Community Foundation, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), and Mercer Street Friends, a Trenton-based nonprofit that pioneered community school implementation in the city in 2015. The Coalition has been meeting for more than a year and was ratified in November 2025 when members signed a charter document.

In 2025, when Mercer Street Friends received a generous state grant championed by state Senator Shirley Turner, it worked with fellow Coalition members to double the number of community schools in Mercer County.

They are among more than 7,500 community schools nationwide. Community schools follow a model with a proven record of success: focusing on strong academic support, strengthening ties between parents and educators, and connecting families to local resources, according to the national Coalition for Community Schools.

The partnership between the Community Foundation and some local schools began almost a decade ago, when the Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Committee on Impact volunteers, and staff created All Kids Thrive to find ways to lower local rates of chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10 percent of school days.

Studies show students who are chronically absent are less likely to read at grade level, and they often have lower graduation rates. Through AKT, the Community Foundation also established a learning community where grantees met regularly to share data, discuss challenges, and celebrate successes.

AKT partners, which included nonprofits and schools, took different approaches to reducing absentee rates based on specific community needs, from launching a breakfast program to analyzing the intersection of chronic health conditions and missed school days.

Successes like the navigator program showed the community school model could help more students thrive. That’s because many causes of chronic absenteeism, such as hunger, housing insecurity, poverty, and mental health struggles, are outside educators’ control. But they are central to the mission of local nonprofits.

This led to the creation of the Coalition, an approach that mirrors growing momentum across New Jersey.

It aligns with the state’s goals of supporting the educational pipeline and providing resources for families and community-based interventions to help students succeed.

A representative of the Community Foundation will also join the state’s new Chronic Absenteeism Task Force, which will analyze the causes of persistent student absences. The legislation to create the task force was sponsored by Assemblywomen Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Linda S. Carter and Carmen Theresa Morales, and state Senators Shirley Turner and Angela V. McKnight.

Each community school’s services are designed to meet the unique needs of its families, but they generally fall into four categories, as described in the Community Schools Playbook:

Through the Coalition, the Community Foundation will help:

• Sustain the Momentum: Ensure the new Community Schools in Trenton, Hamilton, and Ewing have the resources they need to thrive.
• Expand and Connect: Seek external partnerships, including regional healthcare providers, corporate partners, early childhood initiatives, and university faculty.
• Measure and Refine: Work together to use shared data and insights to track attendance and engagement.
• Reset Outcomes for Students: Shift the focus from what families lack to what they can achieve when the community partners with them.