A large fire erupted early Tuesday at an apartment complex under construction in South Bend, Indiana, prompting the evacuation of people in a nearby residential building, local officials said.

According to the South Bend Fire Department, the blaze broke out shortly after midnight at the Stadium Flats apartments near S. Lafayette & W. South Street.

Responding crews found heavy flames and thick smoke at the site after reports indicated the fire had spread across the unfinished structure and involved a crane.

Although the fire sent a “significant amount of embers and debris” into the area, firefighters prevented the flames from reaching the neighboring Diamond View Apartments.

Residents of the Diamond View Apartments were evacuated during the fire, with officials saying the heat damaged several windows on the building’s top floor. The building has 60 units of affordable housing, according to a report last year in the South Bend Tribune.

The Stadium Flats building was set to introduce 92 additional affordable units to downtown South Bend. Before the fire, construction was expected to be completed by spring 2027.

Both buildings are near the training facility for the South Bend Cubs, the city’s minor league baseball team. Firefighters were able to stop the blaze from spreading to the 17,000-square-foot complex, which is right next to the baseball stadium.

Officials said the cause of the fire remains under investigation. No injuries or deaths were reported.

The fire occurred a little over two miles from the University of Notre Dame’s campus.

Prince George has begun his first day at Eton College, arriving at the historic school with the Prince and Princess of Wales by his side.

The young royal, second in line to the throne, appeared every inch the future king — while also looking like any 13-year-old facing the excitement and nerves of a major new beginning.

Dressed in a shirt and tie, dark blazer, chinos and brown suede shoes, George walked briskly with his parents through Eton College’s famous quadrangle, known to pupils as School Yard, as heavy rain fell around them.

The family entered beneath Lupton’s Tower, the school’s 16th-century gatehouse clock tower, before crossing the cobbled Yard together.

Near the bronze statue of Henry VI, Eton’s founder, which stands at the centre of the quadrangle, the Wales family stopped to greet headmaster Simon Henderson and Sir Nicholas Coleridge, the school’s provost and chair of its governing body.

Prince William was smartly dressed in a dark suit, while Catherine wore an elegant green flowing dress and heels and carried a large umbrella.

William was the first to shake hands with the headmaster, then George, as the princess slightly hung back.

‘George welcome, good luck, enjoy,’ Mr Henderson smiled.

He then shook hands with Catherine before the provost introduced himself and they exchanged a few pleasantries.

While there were clearly nerves on both sides, there were also smiles all round – although the heavy rain drowned out the sound of their conversation.

Catherine gazed at her eldest son proudly before Mr Henderson invited the family to get out of the rain.

The princess was seen placing a protective arm on her son’s back as the door was shut behind them. 

The Yard is the oldest part of the school alongside College Chapel, where pupils attend services three times a week.

After the welcome, George, William and Catherine were shown into the fourth-form passage in the original school building, which is understood to house the world’s oldest classroom.

Like other families, the couple will help George settle into his new bedroom. Pupils from other years will return to Eton when the school starts tomorrow.

Following the brief photocall and the picture release, it is William and Catherine’s fervent wish that George’s education will take place away from public view.

Signs have been posted around Windsor warning the public not to photograph the pupils when they are moving around the sprawling campus of school buildings between lessons.

Kensington Palace announced in June that their eldest child would be attending the Windsor boarding school where fees cost more than £65,000 per year.

It seems hard to believe that the self-assured young man in front of us was, only a few years ago, being introduced to the world by William and Catherine on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington – or pictured tousle-haired, his back-pack almost as big as him, on his first day at nursery.

The photocall had been arranged for 11am, half an hour or so before the rest of his fellow ‘F Blockers’ – Eton shorthand for Year 9 students – arrived. 

It is the only time during the next five years George is likely to get any special treatment, and the decision was more about protecting the privacy of the other students.

All new pupils arrive in their own clothes before changing into Eton’s distinctive and historic uniform including black tailcoat, waistcoat and white tunic shirt.

Kensington Palace are set to release a photograph of that separately.

The prince and princess have made clear how grateful they are for the way the media and public have allowed all their three children to grow up and enjoy their education away from the spotlight, in return for regular pictorial updates and occasional public appearances, and hope this will continue for George as he moves through his senior school years.

Henry VI established the school in 1440, naming it ‘Kynge’s College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore’.

Alongside fee-paying students, provision was made for 70 ‘King’s scholars’ to receive free lodging and tuition. The tradition continues today with the school offering bursaries to pupils from less well-off backgrounds.

The young prince’s arrival at the exclusive public school varied markedly from his father’s first day on September 6, 1995.

Then, William, sporting a grey tweed jacket over matching smart trousers and a navy patterned tie, was photographed arriving at his boarding house in front of a large group of the world’s media and signing the register.

He was accompanied by his parents Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, who had by then been separated for three years, along with his younger brother, Prince Harry.

Only a small royal photographer rota captured such an historic moment in the now heir to the throne’s life.

Times change and, as royal aides now argue, it’s stressful enough joining a new school without doing it under the glare of hundreds of cameras.

Eton was always the front runner for William and Catherine when it came to choosing a senior school for their eldest child, but by no means a done deal.

The couple have been spotted checking out a number of boarding schools across the county, including Oundle in Northamptonshire and the princess’s own alma mater, Marlborough – although sources have indicated that the latter has always been a more likely choice for their daughter, Princess Charlotte.

What swung it was Eton’s proximity to the family’s ‘forever home’ at Windsor, Forest Lodge; the fact that the college has long experience of dealing with the complexities around high-profile students; and, of course, George’s own preference.

He is likely to be joined by a number of friends from Lambrook, the co-educational prep school in Berkshire he has attended with his siblings in recent years.

It also helps that William has genuinely fond memories of his own time there.

In an interview to mark his 18th birthday and imminent graduation from Eton, the heir spoke of how he had enjoyed attending Eton as ‘just another student’ and even admitted he’d ‘always liked the uniform’.

He also spoke of how much he had appreciated the support of staff such as his housemaster, Dr Gailey.

Ironically, given how synonymous Eton has become with royalty, it was something of a departure for William to even be sent there.

For centuries, generations of monarchs and their heirs were taught by tutors and had little experience of learning alongside their peers.

However both William’s grandfather and uncle on the Spencer side of the family had attended the school, while his mother also preferred its proximity to Windsor and London.

Charles was also known to have had a less than happy time at his own Scottish alma mater, Gordonstoun – although other members of the Royal Family subsequently went there and adored it – and was content with the choice.

It also enabled William to spend time with his beloved grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, and he still fondly talks of being able to regularly wander over to Windsor Castle to seek tea and sage advice.

William and Catherine have also gone on to break with tradition when it comes to their own children’s education.

George first attended a little £5.50-an-hour Montessori nursery school, Westacre near King’s Lynn in Norfolk, when his parents were based there while William was working as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance Service.

When the family moved back to Kensington Palace in 2017, George and Charlotte were enrolled at Thomas’s Battersea – a very popular but not overly posh private London prep school.

In 2022, all three youngsters moved to Lambrook, a delightful but low-key day and boarding school in Berkshire, where George has regularly stayed overnight in preparation for Eton.

He is said to be a hugely outdoorsy, sporty boy, who has shown a talent for triathlon and sailing – and is obsessed by flying.

His time at Eton will, hopefully, be among the happiest years of his life, allow him to develop away from the spotlight and develop a tight-knit circle of friends that will support him for many decades to come.

The college was founded in 1440 as a charity feeder school to provide free education for 70 poor boys before they progressed to King’s College, Cambridge.

It has since become one of the most lauded public schools in the world, educating generations of British and foreign aristocracy and, in recent years, home-grown monarchy.

Former alumni include no less than 20 former British prime ministers, writers George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Ian Fleming, as well as actors Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston and Damian Lewis.

Recent decades have seen a concerted effort to open up benefits of an Eton education to pupils from a more diverse background, with around 20 per cent on bursaries or scholarships.

The Good Schools Guide says it is an establishment that is chosen by people ‘despite its name, not because of it’ and insists: ‘Eton’s got normal families and normal children doing great things.’

Its fees remain, however, an eye-watering £65,000-plus a year and there is an enviable 7:1 pupil to teacher ratio.

And it is also still renowned for its traditions including the classic uniform of a black tailcoat (£165) with matching trousers (£65), waistcoat (£50) and white tunic shirt (£22).

Facilities remain first class with superlative music, drama and sports departments. As well as rugby and football, the school still boasts unique traditions such the ‘Eton wall game’.

All boarders have private rooms from their first day in one of 25 distinctive boarding houses run by the house master and dame.

Kensington Palace have broken recent tradition and chosen not to share the name of George’s house.

Teachers are known officially as masters, but colloquially as ‘beaks’.

The Waleses – who famously admit they have refused to give their children mobile phones – will no doubt be delighted with the school’s phone policy: just a Nokia brick phone for boys such as George in Year 9 with very limited use.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were reportedly given no advance notice before King Charles III issued a letter Monday addressing their standing within the royal sphere.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the BBC on Tuesday that the couple were “a little surprised to have not been told about this” ahead of the letter’s release.

According to the report, the Sussexes’ team received the correspondence shortly before 2 p.m. UK time. In it, Harry and Meghan were described as “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.”

Harry was then contacted at 3:09 p.m. and informed that his representatives had replied to the King’s letter with follow-up questions. Just two minutes later, the letter was circulated more widely.

A representative for Harry and Markle did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

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Charles’ letter confirmed the duo, who recently relocated to the United Kingdom after six years away, will not be working royals carrying out official engagements.

“It is well known that in January 2020 the Duke and Duchess stepped down from undertaking representative duties on behalf of the Sovereign, and are no longer working Members of the Royal Family,” the announcement, sent to the BBC on behalf of Charles by the family’s lord chamberlain, read.

“There is no change to the current status of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” it continued. Their styles as His and Her Royal Highness remain in abeyance and are not used.”

Charles, 77, issued the letter “to help avoid doubt or confusion.”

This is a developing story…

Israel’s capture on Sunday of the strategically important Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, long viewed as a key Hezbollah and Iranian stronghold, marked a significant setback for Tehran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance.”

The Israel Defense Forces’ gain does not amount to a decisive defeat for Hezbollah, but it strips the Iranian-backed terrorist organization of one of its most important forward positions for planning a potential invasion of Israel.

IDF Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, founder and president of the Israel-based Alma Research and Education Center, told News Media that Israel has spent years steadily weakening Hezbollah’s military capabilities. “In the past three years Israel has attacked Hezbollah against various areas, for instance, we degraded the amount of rockets and missiles,” she said.

According to Zehavi, the IDF has destroyed or neutralized roughly 90% of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile stockpile. “Today Hezbollah is holding between 10,000 to 15,000 rockets, which is much less than what it used to have. Most of the array of sophisticated missiles, accurate missiles and long-range missiles was either eliminated or neutralized,” she said.

She said, “The capability to launch an invasion of thousands of terrorists into Israel which was the plan, and this was the preparedness three years ago. This capability doesn’t exist anymore since the IDF is based in South Lebanon along the borderline, preventing Hezbollah from coming back to those places.”

In late August, Alma released a widely read analysis on: “Hezbollah – Situation Assessment: From a Large-Scale Terrorist Army to a Persistent Dispersed Threat.”

Zehavi, who resides in northern Israel and has experienced Hezbollah’s massive aerial attacks into her region since the Lebanese terrorist movement joined Hamas in its war against Israel, warned that, “As long as Iran supports its main proxy, which is Hezbollah, it will be very difficult to prevent its rebuilding of its military capabilities and with everything that happened in Iran In the past year, Iran still supports Hezbollah.”

She noted that Iran still aids Hezbollah via “arms smuggling and money” and “they still put a lot of effort [into] that and the training and the involvement of Iran in Hezbollah in Lebanon. And this must be stopped.”

Iran’s regime is a state-sponsor of terrorism and Hezbollah’s base is the Shiite community in Lebanon. Radical Shiite Islamism unifies Iran’s regime with its chief proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.

Alma, who has a deep knowledge of Hezbollah’s activities, wrote on X on Sunday: “The battle for the Ali al-Taher Ridge is over – the struggle with Hezbollah is not.”

According to Zehavi, Hezbollah “today is much more of a guerrilla organization than a terrorist army as it used to be. It is having a lot of difficulties in rebuilding its capabilities… It is dedicated to rebuilding its military capabilities. But it has a lot of challenges along the way with this regard because of the regime change in Syria, because of that fact that it’s much more difficult to transfer weapons through the airport in Lebanon and through Syria. But it doesn’t mean that it is not happening. They are still trying and some of it do pass.”

Hezbollah’s setback was also echoed by Israel TV’s Channel 12 chief political analyst, Amit Segal. He said the Hezbollah base Ali al-Taher was “Just 10 kilometers (just over six miles) from the Israeli border, with a clear view of the Litani and the Israeli Hula Valley, it was the place from which Hezbollah intended to coordinate its own Oct. 7 in the Galilee.”

Hezbollah’s ally, the Hamas terrorist organization, invaded Israel nearly three years ago on Oct. 7 and slaughtered over 1,200 people in southern Israel, including more than 40 Americans.

The IDF announced on Sunday that “Soldiers from the 36th Division have operated in recent weeks to clear and neutralize the two underground routes in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area in the Security Zone. The soldiers achieved operational control of the ridge area, both above and below ground, and cleared the area of terrorists. Some of the terrorists were eliminated, while others fled the area.”

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The IDF statement added that “Following operations in the underground routes over the past several weeks, their capability to carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers from within the routes has been neutralized.”

Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati told a Lebanese podcaster in late August that, “Ali al-Taher is important, but if it is lost it does not mean the end of Hezbollah.”

Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told an Arab TV station, also in late August, that the Lebanese army was ready to take over the strategic ridge.

He accused Israel of blocking the army due to its own political considerations ahead of Israeli national elections on Oct. 27.

“The problem is not in the Lebanese army’s readiness but in Israel’s stance,” he said.

The Trump administration had pushed for Hezbollah to allow Lebanon’s Army to take control of Ali al-Taher. Hezbollah refused the proposed U.S. deal.

A State Department spokesperson told News Media that “Hizballah has been the primary obstacle to Lebanon’s economic recovery, the main blemish on its international reputation, and the biggest threat to the safety and stability of Lebanon. It bears sole responsibility for Israel’s presence on Lebanese soil. This is precisely why Hizballah must be disarmed and dismantled.”

The State Department spokesperson added that “Hizballah is drastically weaker than at any point in recent history, which has allowed the Government of Lebanon to outlaw its military activities. We fully support that decision, as do all of our regional partners.”

Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute who focuses on Shia politics throughout the Levant, told News Media that “Hezbollah is weakened on two levels. They lost a lot of people, commanders and people, and weapons. Today, there is a goal to rebuild this military structure, invest in rebuilding in personnel, infrastructure and weapons. This is their primary goal.”

Ghaddar, who is from Lebanon, added the second level of weakness for Hezbollah is the people are divided within the Shiite community. Hezbollah is no longer the father figure. Hezbollah ended with [Hassan] Nasrallah with his assassination. Hezbollah as protector and liberator is no longer there. It is a mix of IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], Hezbollah and Nabih Berri [ the Shiite speaker of the Lebanese parliament and the president of the Amal movement].”

Ghaddar said the Shiite community in Lebanon is fractured over whether to continue its support for Hezbollah after multiple wars with Israel.  She said it’s “divided over whether Hezbollah is the solution. There is where Hezbollah is bleeding. Hezbollah needs the Shiite community for political power.”

Ghaddar said that “Hezbollah has managed to get appointments through their allies, Berri and Amal… They have ministries of finance and health ministry… They really wanted appointments in general security and military. They got that. This reflects their strength economically. They are in survival and using power in the state and cash economy to rebuild.”

Multiple News Media press queries sent to the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., went unanswered.

A woman who once described herself as an atheist says a six-minute brush with death changed everything she thought she knew about life, consciousness and humanity’s place in the universe.

Dr. Anna Stone, a former Department of Defense research technician, was 38 in 2016 when an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy ruptured, triggering catastrophic internal bleeding that she says left her clinically dead in a hospital.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Stone said the near-death experience shattered her long-held belief that awareness simply disappears when the body dies, leaving her convinced that some form of afterlife is real.

But she said the most powerful revelation was not just personal survival beyond death. According to Stone, she returned with the conviction that all people — no matter their faith, politics or culture — are bound together within a single shared consciousness.

‘I came back with this understanding that God, or source, or whatever you want to call it, is like an ocean,’ she told the Daily Mail.

She described each human being as a separate droplet containing the divine, destined after death to rejoin the same ‘sea of consciousness’ without losing their individuality.

‘We’re all going to go to the same place at the end,’ Stone said, arguing that the divisions people use to separate themselves are ultimately ‘all fake.’

She also said the incident awoke a hidden psychic connection between her and another realm – which now sends her terrifying messages from an unseen guardian. 

Stone had previously worked as a lab technician specializing in histology, preparing tissue samples in research labs that she said were tied to university and government contracts. 

This included work connected to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the University of California, Los Angeles and defense projects.

Before her near-death experience, Stone rejected the strict religious teachings of her upbringing and believed that there was no afterlife awaiting her when she died.

‘I am energy, I’m made of cells, cells decay and die. My energy will transfer back to the Earth in some way, shape, or form, as energy does. But it’s not going to be me continuing; it’s gonna be the energy of my body feeding plants or something. That made sense to me,’ she explained.

That all changed when Stone began suffering from multiple episodes of heavy bleeding. She went to the hospital three times, and doctors treated the condition as an ulcer.

In reality, Stone was dealing with an ectopic pregnancy, where the fetus grows inside the fallopian tube. After it ruptured, Stone’s heart stopped while doctors rushed to give her a massive blood transfusion.

Stone described feeling extreme pain as if every cell in her body was dying before she suddenly found herself standing next to her physical body in the hospital, watching as doctors called her time of death and referred to her as a ‘junkie.’

‘I didn’t care that he had said it, really. I cared more, like, did I hear it? Because that’s a problem,’ Stone said, adding that she asked the doctor about what he said when she came back to life.

‘If I’m clinically dead and you called my time a death, I should not have been able to see or hear any of this, right? And, he says, “I’m sorry, I did. You shouldn’t have been able to hear that.”‘

Despite only being clinically dead for six minutes, time did not seem to apply in this realm, and Stone noticed other versions of herself inhabiting the same realm with her.

‘I knew there was a two-year-old, six-year-old, 12-year-old and 16-year-old version of me, all around me. I was existing all at the same time.’

She said the various versions of her past also shared this space with other people whom she recognized but never knew their names. They were strangers she had encountered throughout her life, who had been affected by the negative interactions Stone had with them.

‘I got to see from their perspective how selfish I was,’ Stone confessed. ‘I didn’t consider the other people that I was interacting with. I was just going through my day, and just doing my thing, and I was not considering other people.’

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After this revelation, Stone saw a slightly different version of herself as she looked in 2016, hearing the presence say ‘nope,’ and understanding that it meant she would not be staying in the afterlife.

She claimed that returning to her body was an extremely painful experience, seeing her return to Earth through her navel and feeling her entire body get compressed through this tiny hole.

The trauma of the near-death experience did not end for Stone after finding out from the doctor that she could hear his private comments. In fact, the experience had lasting effects that led her to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Stone claimed she returned from the afterlife and repeatedly heard voices that gave her warnings moments before terrible events took place, including one which told her to stop just before she nearly struck a pedestrian with her car on a poorly lit street.

‘I started hearing this voice. Not a voice outside of me. It was inside, and it would tell me things, like, don’t drink that, or, don’t go that way,’ Stone said.

In another incident, Stone said she could hear a stranger standing near her while walking to her teaching job ask what time it was.

She answered that the time was 3.30pm, causing the man to panic and claim he never asked that question out loud.

After experiencing these incidents, doctors at the University of Southern California ruled out schizophrenia and similar conditions.

Although Stone was diagnosed with complex PTSD from her difficult childhood, including her father being arrested for murder when she was two, and being kicked out of her house at age 12, there was no explanation for what was causing the episodes.

She told the Daily Mail she now believes that her soul somehow caused the entire near-death experience to take place to put her life back on the right track.

Stone, who would go on to earn a PhD in spiritual psychology after the incident, said she battled an addiction to opioids before going through a medical detox in 2011.

She also admitted to drinking heavily before her near-death experience but has not drank since due to a miraculous incident right after she got home from the hospital.

‘I tried to drink alcohol, and it foamed up in my mouth. Instead of drinking it, it turned from liquid into this foam and it was warm,’ she said.

‘I had to spit it out, and I tried a different type of alcohol, same thing. That was the end of it. So I stopped.’

‘I knew I was coming back,’ Stone said of her near-death experience. ‘This was just, like, I call it my karmic b**** slap. It was like, Anna, get your s*** together, what are you doing?’

As for her own experience, Stone said it completely altered her as a person from the moment she left the hospital.

Shortly after, Stone received an offer to teach at a continuation school, working with students whose lives had also been marked by trauma, disruption and the same kinds of struggles she knew firsthand.

She has taught, written and studied how trauma, consciousness, and unusual sensitivity are connected since 2016, to help other people make sense of pain and change.

‘I would hope that it means that we are not finite, that we are part of this collective organism of the universe that is, I believe, conscious,’ Stone said of her near-death experience.

‘I have no idea where it’s gonna go, but I think that it is far more. My hope is that this whole existence here is more than just bills and taxes and disappointments and rat racing. I really hope that there’s something after that makes all of this worthwhile.’

New York City students head back to class this week — at least in theory. In practice, roughly one-third are expected to miss 10% or more of the school year.

That level of chronic absenteeism remains one of the clearest barriers to academic recovery and long-term student success.

The city Department of Education could offer a stronger curriculum, hire exceptional teachers and pour unlimited funding into classrooms, but none of it matters if children are not in their seats consistently enough to learn.

Against that backdrop, it is hardly surprising that about half of students are not on track to end the year reading at grade level.

Chronic absenteeism surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite the return to normal school routines, the problem has remained alarmingly persistent.

In the 2018-19 academic year it stood at 26.5%, only to spike to 34.8% five years later.

The bad habits start young: 37.8% of kindergarteners were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year.

A robust body of research correlates absenteeism, especially in early grades, with negative outcomes in school and later in life, including poorer standardized test scores and greater likelihood of drug use and criminal-justice involvement.

Unexcused absences, which make up the largest share of overall absenteeism, have the biggest impact on academic performance.

High rates of absenteeism can disrupt classroom instruction and make it harder for peers with consistent attendance to learn.

Asking taxpayers to spend record sums on public education, only to have a third of students miss large chunks of the school year, is the ultimate indictment of the poor value proposition city schools offer.

The DOE will spend more than $42,000 on each student, yet even those who attend will spend 130 fewer hours in classrooms than the national average.

This dysfunction is one reason why so many families are opting out of the system.

K-12 enrollment in New York City public schools has plummeted by over a tenth since 2020, or over 100,000 students.

Many families enroll in pre-K, only to flee before kindergarten: 52,400 children applied for pre-K seats in 2024–25, but only 46,370 later applied for kindergarten.

The School Construction Authority predicts the system will lose another 150,000 students over the next 10 years.

Charter schools, meanwhile, continue to grow, with five new schools opening this year.

The charters enroll an estimated 152,000 students, representing 16% of the entire pupil population.

What accounts for the difference?

For one thing, charter leaders are laser focused on attendance. 

They emphasize its importance with parents, track attendance carefully and contact families promptly when students miss class.

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Charters encourage punctuality directly, too: Students with perfect attendance receive special awards, and those who arrive at school consistently late incur penalties.

When charter students log too many absences, administrators have the flexibility to address it; they can require teachers to spend time addressing underlying issues with families.

That’s possible because charter teachers are not unionized, and not bound by strict timetables set in the DOE contract.

Nonetheless, reducing chronic absenteeism should be a top priority of Chancellor Kamar Samuels and district superintendents.

It will be impossible to raise achievement levels if students aren’t in school consistently.

This is not a new problem, but in years past elected officials made attendance a priority.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg launched a multi-year crusade in 2010 to reduce chronic absenteeism.

The effort included multimedia advertising, pairing troubled kids with “success mentors” and even automated phone calls from celebrities urging students to show up for school.

Out of the 100 schools that participated in Bloomberg’s programs, 58 saw reductions in chronic absenteeism.

The fact that school leaders and public officials have not treated the post-pandemic spike as an emergency underscores how DOE has declined — even as per-pupil spending has soared well beyond Bloomberg-era levels.

But there are some bright spots.

DOE is now mandating each school to designate a staff member who will be trained to act as an absenteeism “avoidance liaison.” 

It’s a good first step.

These staffers should offer a mix of supports to ensure that families bring students to school regularly — as well as consequences for those who exceed a certain number of unexcused absences.

Samuels must next target high-risk students with an early-warning system to flag unexcused absences and intervene quickly.

Absenteeism is a problem in urban districts nationwide: Detroit, for one, is experimenting with cash-incentive rewards for students who show up.

Reasonable minds can differ on this approach, but at least city leaders are taking the issue seriously enough to try unconventional solutions.

New York should likewise embrace innovation.

Finally, we need better data: New York, both city and state, drags its feet on releasing attendance data.

That leaves local researchers stuck with numbers from the 2024-25 school year — even as states like Connecticut and Rhode Island update public attendance dashboards monthly.

The first step toward fixing New York City’s schools is getting students back into them.

Danyela Souza Egorov and John Ketcham are fellows at Manhattan Institute.