Stephen Wakefield 
BALTIMORE, Md. — April 29, 2026 — Michigan’s Flint Community Schools (FCS) today announced a new initiative aimed at boosting enrollment in the district and fighting chronic absenteeism. This effort implements an innovative, human-centered service model from Concentric Educational Solutions that meets families where they are to engage them in addressing the academic, social, emotional, and environmental factors that prevent students from enrolling, re-enrolling, or attending school in FCS.
Serving approximately 2,700 learners across eight buildings, FCS is committed to developing a community of learners prepared to live, work, and contribute to an ever-changing society. To achieve this mission, FCS has adopted a system-wide approach focused on the whole child, whole school, and whole community. This commitment is supported through a wide range of academic and athletic programs, along with relationships and accountability that positively influence scholars’ academic success, behavior, and attendance.
To deepen their community-based efforts to return students to FCS and reengage them in learning, FCS sought a partner with both philosophical alignment to district goals and a proven track record of scaling solutions to boost enrollment and re-engage non-enrolled students. Following a review of potential partners, FCS selected Concentric Educational Solutions to aid this effort.
Concentric’s unique approach leverages trained members of the community to gather real-time insights from students and families that help school systems align resources, address the factors driving disengagement, boost enrollment, and fight chronic absenteeism. Services Concentric will provide to Flint Community Schools include:
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Home visits by trained, community-based teams to families of FCS students not currently enrolled in FCS or enrolled, but not attending school
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Engagement with families through collaborative discussions to identify barriers to enrollment, re-enrollment, and school attendance
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Custom ethnographic research from noted scholar and Howard University Professor Dr. Ivory Toldson interpreting the data collected during family engagements and outlining the factors driving student and family disengagement in the district
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Collaboration with school administrators that turns research into enrollment, re-engagement and attendance strategies for the students and families engaged during home visits
“Our work to return students to our schools begins with deep family engagement,” said Ernest Steward, Ed.S., Director of Student Services & Centralized Enrollment. “At Flint Community Schools, we are committed to cultivating a welcoming environment where every family is an active partner in education. Our new initiative with Concentric Educational Solutions supports our efforts to partner with families to address the real barriers that keep students out of school. This commitment to connecting and collaborating is essential to building the supportive bridge back to the classroom that ensures all our students can access the rigorous academic opportunities they deserve.”
“Concentric shares Flint Community Schools’ deep commitment to helping every student return to school and re-engage in learning, and we are excited to support the district’s efforts to reconnect students to opportunity,” said Concentric Educational Solutions CEO Molly Hebert Loyd. “We are eager to help showcase all fantastic learning and engagement opportunities available to students served by FCS. We look forward to partnering with a district that shares our conviction: that re-enrollment requires a human-centered approach that meets families where they are, utilizes community insight, and builds meaningful, lasting pathways back to opportunity for every student in the community.
To learn more about Concentric Educational Solutions’ approach to student enrollment, re-engagement, and combating chronic absenteeism, download the company’s new white paper on chronic absenteeism, visit the company’s website, follow the organization on X, or connect on LinkedIn.
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