@ Chronic absenteeism in schools

[kiminky]

Chronic absenteeism and truancy has been my job as a School Social Worker for the last 17 years. The number of absences has definitely skyrocketed in the last few years. In the past, 20-25 UNEXCUSED absences for student were bad, I am now dealing with upwards of 40 and 50 unexcused absences. And typically, the students who had that many absences were a smaller group, now the amount of students with high absences is overwhelming and I am barely treading water to keep up. In a very high needs school with about 350 students, I currently have over 50 students who have missed at least 20-25 unexcused days. I cover 7 schools in my district, 4 of which are high needs schools. We utilize as many interventions and supports we can to help families-phone calls, home visits, texts, family engagement meetings, clothing, food, mental health counseling. Last week I got a parent a stroller. Transportation/busing continues to be a huge issue. We are the largest district in the state. I do see more kids staying home for illnesses where they may have toughed it out in the past. I see vacations. A lot of housing instability. And a lack of emphasis placed on the importance of school in general. I am in the process of referring a student for educational neglect for over 50 absences and 70+ tardies. Our district allows unlimited doctor's notes and 10 parent notes per school year.

[Jalapeñomel]

I have a student in my 3rd period who travels all the time, including three Taylor Swift concerts.

They called in her parents, and they said, “it doesn’t matter if she’s passing her classes. So why does she have to be there every day?”

[StrawberryBlondie]

This excused vs. unexcused absences thing is kind of wild to me. In our district if you're going to be out or late, you just call the attendance line and report the absence/tardiness and that's it. IDK what happens if you don't call in but the only absence/tardy lines in the report card are just total days absent & total days tardy so I would assume we don't make a distinction. I've never been asked for a doctor's note or even a reason outside of the covid years.

I'm sure we have issues with chronic absenteeism just like everywhere but some of what you're all talking about seems like an administrative nightmare. If I had to jump through that many hoops I can easily see how I'd decide to just say eff it and not bother.

[fortnightlily]

I'm surprised they didn't break it down by grade level. I'd be curious to see if there are different rates or reasons depending on if it's elementary vs middle vs high school. I'd expect the interventions to be different.

[twinmomma]

Mar 29, 2024 12:10:10 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

I have a student in my 3rd period who travels all the time, including three Taylor Swift concerts.

They called in her parents, and they said, “it doesn’t matter if she’s passing her classes. So why does she have to be there every day?”

This is literally my stepson's mom. Whenever she pulls him out of school for fun stuff she says "well, he's in the 90th percentile on standardized tests. He's clearly fine." But the poor kid has zero social skills because he's never around other kids!

[penguingrrl]

Mar 29, 2024 11:08:01 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Are they including kids w school refusal issues as well?  Miss R's school attendance was spotty at best the year that her district was completely remote. I worked outside the home from when that school year started through May (school got out in early June) so she was home alone expected to do school work that never happened. Since her return to in-person schooling, it’s been practically non-existent. Thankfully we discovered she has ADD and got her an IEP but that only works if she AT school. She's now on Home & Hospital due to school refusal issues. 

I was wondering the same. Last year my DD got to campus (an out of district therapeutic school) exactly 70 days, and her social worker was able to get her into the building fewer than 30 (and never for as long as 2 hours). I’m sure that doesn’t help the statistics. Thankfully as of last week she’s back at the school and actually willingly attending 3 days a week, but in 3 school years she attended fewer than 100 days (and that number is all three years combined). And all of her struggles started post pandemic.

[AdaraMarie]

I have been having a little trouble getting my kid teen to school this year because of how much school has changed. Once she took it upon herself to stay home when I was working in person (and got in big troble) and I've given her the benefit of the doubt on 2-3 "sick" days when I thought she could have gone.
But it is a little hard when her argument is: why should I go when the teachers post 90% of the assignments and instruction online and at home I can do the work in a fraction of the time without having to deal with disruptive kids?
Most of her middle school classes are 30ish kids and her school has locked down bathrooms due to vandalism and chaos so I can see her point. And yet I can make her to go anyway so at least she hasn't gotten to full blown refusal.

[bee20]

What surprises me about the article comments here and on the NYT is how many parents are absolutely fine with it and non-defensively explaining that school isn't working anymore.

[Velar Fricative]

Mar 29, 2024 15:22:51 GMT -5 bee20 said:

What surprises me about the article comments here and on the NYT is how many parents are absolutely fine with it and non-defensively explaining that school isn't working anymore.

I noticed that as well.

[Velar Fricative]

If I had to hazard a guess about why funding is tied to attendance…probably racism. More people than ever don’t trust or care for our public education system and will look for ways to defund it. Historically, districts with the most chronically absent kids tended to be in larger cities and/or majority-nonwhite areas.

If anyone can correct me on that, please do. This is just where my brain went.

[redheadbaker]

Mar 29, 2024 11:24:00 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

Mar 29, 2024 11:07:35 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

They won't consider illness an excused absence without a note? Is that common? Ours doesn't require a doctor's note unless the absence is for three or more consecutive days. 

This is correct, no doctor note no excused absence. I always notify the school when DD is sick, the absence is always unexcused. It's hit or miss even with a doctor's note. If they get sent home sick from school, that day and the following day are excused, it seems the policy encourages parents to send sick kids.

That's such bullshit. Not every illness needs to be seen by a doctor. Why waste the parents' money and the doctor's time? 

[dontlook]

Mar 29, 2024 15:22:51 GMT -5 bee20 said:

What surprises me about the article comments here and on the NYT is how many parents are absolutely fine with it and non-defensively explaining that school isn't working anymore.

In my upper middle class neighborhood SO many of my neighbors have pulled their kids out of school varies weeks in March for spring break trips (our spring break was this week). So many families just don’t care and boggles my mind. I can’t imagine having my kids miss a week of school past 4th grade just because. The amount of stuff they would miss wouldn’t be worth it. Traveling during spring break is expensive so we save and can only go every other year. I don’t understand the blasé attitude about missing school.

[quesyrah]

Mar 29, 2024 15:49:03 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

If I had to hazard a guess about why funding is tied to attendance…probably racism. More people than ever don’t trust or care for our public education system and will look for ways to defund it. Historically, districts with the most chronically absent kids tended to be in larger cities and/or majority-nonwhite areas.

If anyone can correct me on that, please do. This is just where my brain went.

I wouldn’t be surprised, especially given how much racism there is in school zoning.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Mar 29, 2024 13:16:55 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Mar 29, 2024 11:08:01 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Are they including kids w school refusal issues as well?  Miss R's school attendance was spotty at best the year that her district was completely remote. I worked outside the home from when that school year started through May (school got out in early June) so she was home alone expected to do school work that never happened. Since her return to in-person schooling, it’s been practically non-existent. Thankfully we discovered she has ADD and got her an IEP but that only works if she AT school. She's now on Home & Hospital due to school refusal issues. 

I was wondering the same. Last year my DD got to campus (an out of district therapeutic school) exactly 70 days, and her social worker was able to get her into the building fewer than 30 (and never for as long as 2 hours). I’m sure that doesn’t help the statistics. Thankfully as of last week she’s back at the school and actually willingly attending 3 days a week, but in 3 school years she attended fewer than 100 days (and that number is all three years combined). And all of her struggles started post pandemic.

Mine was struggling prior to the pandemic but it was manageable. During and post-pandemic, its been a nightmare. She seems to be doing better w her Home & Hospital classes but I don't know how long we can continue that. 

[pinkdutchtulips]

Mar 29, 2024 15:55:45 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Mar 29, 2024 11:24:00 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

This is correct, no doctor note no excused absence. I always notify the school when DD is sick, the absence is always unexcused. It's hit or miss even with a doctor's note. If they get sent home sick from school, that day and the following day are excused, it seems the policy encourages parents to send sick kids.

That's such bullshit. Not every illness needs to be seen by a doctor. Why waste the parents' money and the doctor's time? 

That's the exact argument I used and was successful enough to have it written into her IEP that all mental health absences (which the majority of her absences are) are excused w/o a doctor's note. The letter from her pedi in our request for H&H due to mental health issues was enough. 

[imimahoney]

Outside of illness, the month of March I had 2 separate students miss 2 days each for sports tournaments/competitions and three students miss an entire week for fmaily vacations.

As long as states tie funding and school ratings to attendance, schools will not stop trying to eliminate those type of absences.

[redheadbaker]

DS is in 6th and has missed 1 day for illness, and left early 1 day for a doctor appointment. We're lucky that he doesn't have a chronic illness.

Like Velar Fricative, I won't pull my kid from school for a trip to Disney.

I don't agree with striving for perfect attendence at all costs even if you go to school sick (my mom's approach was, you're going to school unless you're throwing up, and she ended up sending my brother to school with pneumonia). A mental health day here or there, ok. Keep them home when they have a contagious illness, obviously.

But pulling your kid out for family vacations that could be taken any time isn't great, either. Yeah, I get that they're cheaper. That's not really a compelling reason for me (we can't afford to travel during any time of year, so ... no sympathy from me.)

[kiminky]

I will also add a couple of other things-

Our district (and possibly state) has added mental health as an appropriate reason to use a parent note for a sick day.

We also have stopped encouraging perfect attendance and perfect attendance awards in the last few years. Those types of awards only truly reward strong immune systems.

[polarbearfans]

I have been so stressed this year about how much school my daughter has missed. I am concerned she will lose her scholarship which missing school can cause her to lose. She only stays home when she is actually sick. We haven’t done any fun skip days. Illness has hit our house hard this year. Luckily I haven’t had too much pushback because they know how often they send her home as well. I send doctors notes when I get them, but I am not taking her to the doctor every time she is sick. If the school wants to pay for it I will take her, but otherwise it is only when necessary. Her doctor will give guidance over the phone. Kids don’t need seen for every cold or upset stomach.

I am fortunate that I can work from home. If I had to work in office I can see the temptation to just send her to school on days she should stay home. I see other parents doing this which is probably why my child is so sick. As is I cannot keep her home every cough or sniffle either because it is so much to make up even just one day missed. If no fever or vomit within 24 hours I do send to school as long as she is reasonable well and just encourage good hygiene and covering her mouth with coughs/sneezes and frequent hand washing, but kids are kids and good at being gross.

[erbear]

Mar 29, 2024 13:59:40 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

I have been having a little trouble getting my kid teen to school this year because of how much school has changed. Once she took it upon herself to stay home when I was working in person (and got in big troble) and I've given her the benefit of the doubt on 2-3 "sick" days when I thought she could have gone.
But it is a little hard when her argument is: why should I go when the teachers post 90% of the assignments and instruction online and at home I can do the work in a fraction of the time without having to deal with disruptive kids?
Most of her middle school classes are 30ish kids and her school has locked down bathrooms due to vandalism and chaos so I can see her point. And yet I can make her to go anyway so at least she hasn't gotten to full blown refusal.

If this is how her school is being run, she’s not wrong and I wouldn’t go either. This is my current school pet peeve — that is lazy teaching and so many teachers are still relying on the “read this and answer questions” model of the pandemic and calling it learning. And it’s not. But I guess if kids aren’t coming to school and you have to create and post these bullshit assignments because parents are pulling kids for dumb reasons, I understand it — I would not do twice the job 🤷‍♀️

[AdaraMarie]

erbear I don't think the assignments are too bad from what I've seen, but they do a lot of work on the computer with videos and interactive things. It seems like all the math practice assignments are on the computer so they get graded automatically and all thier writing is on the computer. The use slide shows for a lot of assignments and presentations.
The main things not online seem to be science experiments and book discussion groups but those don't happen every day. Even her art class includes a lot of video instruction, though they at least do those assignments with real paper and art supplies!

[penguingrrl]

Mar 29, 2024 16:12:01 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Mar 29, 2024 13:16:55 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I was wondering the same. Last year my DD got to campus (an out of district therapeutic school) exactly 70 days, and her social worker was able to get her into the building fewer than 30 (and never for as long as 2 hours). I’m sure that doesn’t help the statistics. Thankfully as of last week she’s back at the school and actually willingly attending 3 days a week, but in 3 school years she attended fewer than 100 days (and that number is all three years combined). And all of her struggles started post pandemic.

Mine was struggling prior to the pandemic but it was manageable. During and post-pandemic, its been a nightmare. She seems to be doing better w her Home & Hospital classes but I don't know how long we can continue that. 

It’s so hard. I hate that they’ve fought what my kid needed all along because it’s the “most restrictive environment” and used that to deny what my kid needs. I would love her to just be able to function, but she hasn’t been able to, so give her what will allow her to access any education at all instead of simply refusing. Sending hugs to you, I know how hard it’s been.

[abs]

Mar 29, 2024 17:39:03 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

erbear I don't think the assignments are too bad from what I've seen, but they do a lot of work on the computer with videos and interactive things. It seems like all the math practice assignments are on the computer so they get graded automatically and all thier writing is on the computer. The use slide shows for a lot of assignments and presentations.
The main things not online seem to be science experiments and book discussion groups but those don't happen every day. Even her art class includes a lot of video instruction, though they at least do those assignments with real paper and art supplies!

This is exactly how it is for DD, too. Science experiments and band are not computer based. Otherwise it’s a lot of videos and slide shows. It doesn’t bother her and it does make it easy to follow along but I wish they didn’t rely on computers so much.

[StrawberryBlondie]

IDK maybe I'm part of the problem here but our school district's calendar makes it really hard to take any vacation during the school year aside from spring break. Technically winter break is longer than a week but we always go back Jan 2 so a one-week trip would require either being gone over Christmas or travelling on Christmas, so that complicates things.

So I'm not personally going to sweat it if my kid misses Monday & Tuesday of a week they have Wed-Friday off, or if leaving the Friday before spring break is significantly cheaper than waiting till Saturday or Sunday.

I know school is important so this really isn't about me. My kid typically misses less than 5 days/year. But I think if you're trying to encourage things like not pulling kids out of school for a trip, you need to give them more than the 2 most expensive travel times of the year to do so.

[grover]

Mar 29, 2024 9:08:28 GMT -5 erbear said:

While I appreciate that people are keeping their kids home now when they are sick, I am really struggling (as a teacher) with the amount of absences kids are having when they’re not sick. They don’t feel like coming in. Parents want to do something else. Whatever the reason, kids are missing a ton of school.

Unfortunately, the education machine didn’t slow or re-evaluate and the standards and tests are still there. So now I have less time with your kids to prep them for the same end result, and it’s impossible, and I’m the one who gets blamed when it doesn’t happen.

This! Add to it that we can't give homework, but optional "resources" that basically 2 out of my 77 students will complete. I teach math that builds up the content. I think maybe 1 student when she misses but isn't puking that will log on to watch the edpuzzle video of the content covered when she was absent.  Then the students claim "well you're not teaching me what I missed while I was home/playing video games/on a vacation, so I guess you just want me to fail the test."

This is the first year I seriously am contemplating a new career. 

[UMaineTeach]

It doesn’t matter what code the office uses to mark the absence, they all count toward chronically absent. Absent is absent to the government.

“Chronic Absenteeism is one of the areas which determines school accountability. A student is defined as being chronically absent if the student is enrolled a minimum of 10 days (60 days for correctional facilities) and absent 10% or more of the days enrolled. All absences (excused and unexcused) are used to make this determination. Excused absences are only used to determine if the student should also be deemed truant.”

www.maine.gov/doe/data-reporting/reporting/warehouse/chronic-absenteeism#:~:text=A%20student%20is%20defined%20as,used%20to%20make%20this%20determination.

School handbook policies and whatnot are a different story.

Our system automatically generates the truancy/chronic absence letters, but the administrator can choose to mail it out or not.

[statgirl]

I am fired up and need to get this out. Ignore if you want—I have “feelings” about school and absences.

I teach college. I routinely have 20% absent because I have videos posted with material and after class I post all material we complete as a UDL strategy. When I don’t post these, students complain because they want them for review. When I do post, they take it as a “okay-ish” substitute (as they often let me know—they complain it isn’t as good as being in-class. I KNOW). These are adults—I have lots of non-traditional students (so “fully formed” adults).

They miss for lots of “good” reasons (sick, sick kids, job difficulties, car problems, other family stuff) and lots of “not good” reasons (overslept, vacation, didn’t feel it). Either way—they miss the material and have to catch up through alternate means. But…they often still have their reason for missing on-going, so it builds.

I also have elementary kids who hate missing for any reason. They have to have a doctors note for any checkouts (even if sent home sick) or for absences of 3 days. We haven’t hit 3 days in a row yet but every doctor appointment is unexcused as the note is due to the front office by the parent the next morning and parking is a nightmare. Each doctor appointment also results in a half-day absence as we cannot check out after 2 and if you arrive after 1:30, you cannot physically park on campus because the pickup line blocks the parking lot. School releases at 2:30/2:40/3:05 depending on grade but if I arrive anytime after 2, I won’t get my kids in the car until after 3:05 because of the line. So…a coveted 3:30 appointment means I check out at 1:30 (or park a few blocks away and have my kids be walkers that day since they are now old enough to meet the school’s age). When they do miss, if it is unexcused, they are capped at a 60%.

Of course, I could have more flexibility with when to schedule doctors visits for my kids if as an educator it wasn’t frowned on that I take my own leave. I have 129 days of leave in the bank—I have worked for 19 years at 9-12 days a year (depending on if I teach summers) and I birthed one child during a school year (other was summer) so you can do the math. After my second was hospitalized as an infant, my oldest had a parasite, and I had gallbladder removal (that was only non-emergent because the surgeon on call was “not who I would let my daughter see” as one nurse muttered under her breath) within the course of the first 8 weeks of the semester, I was dinged in my evaluation for excessive absences (I missed at most 7 classes over 4 courses (4 of those were tests that I had proctored and I had subs for all of them) along with less than 20 office hours. This was the equivalent of 4 days. I was (am) salty.

I don’t have a solution to absences and solving truancy. I just have lived experiences—it is terrible to miss education but it is also terrible to not offer flexibility to both students and educators. Life is full of competing priorities and not everything can be first. I hoped we would recognize that 4 years ago but as a society, we haven’t—at least not policy wise.

[kiminky]

Mar 29, 2024 21:09:27 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

It doesn’t matter what code the office uses to mark the absence, they all count toward chronically absent. Absent is absent to the government.

“Chronic Absenteeism is one of the areas which determines school accountability. A student is defined as being chronically absent if the student is enrolled a minimum of 10 days (60 days for correctional facilities) and absent 10% or more of the days enrolled. All absences (excused and unexcused) are used to make this determination. Excused absences are only used to determine if the student should also be deemed truant.”

www.maine.gov/doe/data-reporting/reporting/warehouse/chronic-absenteeism#:~:text=A%20student%20is%20defined%20as,used%20to%20make%20this%20determination.

School handbook policies and whatnot are a different story.

Our system automatically generates the truancy/chronic absence letters, but the administrator can choose to mail it out or not.

That's correct, they will be "counted" statistically as chronically absent, excused or not. My district is almost 100,000 students and we don't automatically generate truancy notices, etc. How the absences are counted though determine whether I as a School Social Worker or a truancy officer for middle and high school (for our district) will or will not pursue next steps truancy-wise.

Also, for those struggling with absences, be sure you know your district's absence policy.

[basilosaurus]

Mar 29, 2024 12:10:10 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

I have a student in my 3rd period who travels all the time, including three Taylor Swift concerts.

They called in her parents, and they said, “it doesn’t matter if she’s passing her classes. So why does she have to be there every day?”

There's a part of this I'm sympathetic to. With schools dealing with so much bullshit, there are going to be kids that don't miss much by being out of class frequently. What is the point of sitting idly at best?

Not that I think that's a good idea. But I understand the sentiment behind it. I cannot tell you how many times I was just told to sit at my desk and read a book. Why do that there instead of somewhere else? Sure I would have been reading regardless, but I'm not one to argue a concert is of less value than re reading the Anne books

[erbear]

Mar 29, 2024 19:54:37 GMT -5 abs said:

Mar 29, 2024 17:39:03 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

erbear I don't think the assignments are too bad from what I've seen, but they do a lot of work on the computer with videos and interactive things. It seems like all the math practice assignments are on the computer so they get graded automatically and all thier writing is on the computer. The use slide shows for a lot of assignments and presentations.
The main things not online seem to be science experiments and book discussion groups but those don't happen every day. Even her art class includes a lot of video instruction, though they at least do those assignments with real paper and art supplies!

This is exactly how it is for DD, too. Science experiments and band are not computer based. Otherwise it’s a lot of videos and slide shows. It doesn’t bother her and it does make it easy to follow along but I wish they didn’t rely on computers so much.

This just makes me so sad for kids. So much of school now has reverted to just delivery of information (or worse, creation of slides to deliver information for teachers in the name of being “facilitators”) and meanwhile kids are just half-ass teaching themselves because at no point are they actually engaging with the content. No wonder no one wants to go to school…

I’m not a fan of the world in which everything I have to do is a dog and pony show to “entertain” my students, and some of what I do is probably pretty boring for kids who think everything worthwhile has to be fun, but damn, sometimes school should be enjoyable.