Bueller... Anyone?
Chronic absenteeism made for one classic 80’s flick, but for Woonsocket schools it’s not a laughing matter
WOONSOCKET — Plagued by some of the highest rates of chronic student absenteeism in the state, the Woonsocket Education Department has launched a campaign to address a problem that Schools Supt. Patrick McGee calls “a crisis.”
“Be Here” is a multi-component effort that will use both carrots and sticks to boost attendance, including a plan to identify emerging absenteeism before it becomes chronic; strategies for making parents more active stakeholders in their children’s education; and rewarding good attendance with positive attention.
In one of its more novel facets, the plan calls for “saturating social media,” including Facebook and YouTube, with short videos featuring principals and teachers promoting the importance of coming to school, according to McGee. The videos will be uploaded to Facebook pages maintained by individual schools and the WED homepage, and parents will get links to YouTube install- ments with links provided by email and pamphlets that will be sent home with students.
“It’s a national crisis and it’s a crisis here,” the superintendent said. “The first thing you’ve got to do is recognize you have a problem or you’re never going to do anything about it.”
Citing statistics from RI Kids Count, a public policy research organization, McGee said city schools rank in either first or second place in the state for chronic
absenteeism. Data for last school year is due out later this month, so the most recent statistics available are those from the 2015-16 school year.
They show:
• 24 percent of students were chronically absent in Grades K-3. That was the highest in the state, with Providence trailing in second place at 21 percent.
• 31 percent of students were chronically absent in Grades 6-8 (middle school), also the highest in the state. Providence ranked second in that category as well, with 28 percent.
• 42 percent of students were chronically absent in Grades 9-12 (high school), which was second highest in the state. Providence took the top spot, with 45 percent.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as 18 or more missed school days per year, or 10 percent of the minimum time students are required to spend in school under state law. And it’s a recipe for disaster, according to McGee, especially in the lower grades.
A student who is chronically absent during the earliest leg of his or her academic journey is at very high risk of falling behind in essential language and math skills. Students who fall behind are at risk of staying behind, increasing the odds that they’ll fail to graduate from high school. And students without a diploma are increasingly likely to land in the job market earning less than a living wage.
“If you don’t have a high school degree chances of getting a job where you can support yourself and your family – those decrease significantly,” McGee says.
One of the key strategies of “Be Here” began this year with an effort to flag students who were absent two or more times in September. At that rate, McGee observes, a student will become chronically absent by the end of the year if the pattern were allowed to continue.
School personnel have been instructed to respond to flagged students with a private meeting. The idea is for interventions to become gradually more aggressive if the pattern continues, including phone calls and letters to parents, or a visit from a “school attendance” officer, also known as a truancy officer.
Another component calls for weekly emails to parents from educators with advisories about what’s going on in class and stressing the importance of the material to their children. The advisories will also include a link to the short videos promoting attendance that can be viewed on Facebook and YouTube. McGee said the WED is getting some help producing the videos from Hayes Martin Associates, a public relations and communications company.
At every school, principals and other staffers, including assistant principals, guidance counselors and teachers, have been authorized to assemble teams to brainstorm unique and creative approaches to promoting attendance, according to McGee. One priority will be to recognize not just perfect or very good attendance, but improved attendance.
McGee says there are multiple causes of poor attendance, but two he cites are single-parent households with inadequate access to transportation and, surprisingly, family vacations. McGee says there are parents in the school system who walk their children to school, often accompanied by toddlers who are too young for school. Sometimes, inclement weather is enough to discourage parents from leaving the house with the youngest members of their family, and when that happens, often the older children stay home, too, McGee says.
High absenteeism also seems to track summer vacations, according to McGee. Sometimes school starts before the parents are ready to leave the summer house for the season, and they keep the kids with them.
Bullying is another reason he cites for kids not showing up at school, but McGee says that is a problem school officials will do everything in their power to address if it’s reported to them. Often, it is not.
Chronic absenteeism has been on McGee’s radar for some time, and he’s hoping that efforts already in place before the campaign was fine-tuned as “Be Here” will bear some fruit when the latest statistics come in.
“I’m hoping last year’s percentages will be lower than the previous years,” the superintendent said. “Right now we’re doing more than we’ve ever done before.”