Absenteeism soars at S.J. County schools

Officials attribute high rates to changes in the definition of absenteeism

San Joaquin County had one of the highest rates of chronic student absenteeism in California for the 2016-17 academic year, along with Sonoma and Sacramento counties, according to the California Department of Education.

San Joaquin’s rate of 15.4 percent is due in part to a recent change in the definition of “chronic absenteeism,” according to Carly Sexton, a public information officer with the San Joaquin County Office of Education

“It is important to note that in the 2016-17 school year, the federal definition of absenteeism and how absenteeism is reported was changed. Previously, students were truant if they missed three days or more. However, now students are reported as ‘chronically absent’ when they have missed 10 percent of the school year for any reason. This includes suspensions, excused and unexcused absences,” Sexton wrote in an email.

To help address this problem, the SJCOE launched a Truancy Task Force, a collaborative effort between Child Welfare and Attendance officials in local school districts, local law enforcement, San Joaquin County Juvenile Probation and other local and county agencies, Sexton explained.

“The Truancy Task Force focuses on solutions to decrease truancy and support students with barriers to regular attendance and go out to the homes and talk to students and their parents/guardians. Additionally, SJCOE alternative programs have an Attendance Incentive Program which rewards students individually and sites as a whole based on meeting attendance goals,” Sexton wrote.

Allen Dosty, Lodi Unified School District’s coordinator of child welfare and attendance, attributes part of the county’s high rate of absenteeism to the fact that migrant workers and their families sometimes move between multiple areas each year, as well as economically disadvantaged students experiencing additional barriers to attendance.

Although Dosty said that Lodi Unified’s chronic absenteeism rate has declined over the past few years, he explained that Lodi’s current rate of 12.7 percent is still higher than the statewide rate of 10.8 percent. Child welfare and attendance has been working with attendance advisors, who help school sites to get consistently absent students to attend school on a regular basis, he added.

“As a district, we try to have programs in place to help those students out, such as after-school programs and 20- or 30-minute interventions each week. A number of districts throughout the county have experienced some of the same challenges, so we’re trying to be as positive as possible to provide families with as many resources as possible to address their personal needs in addition to addressing the students’ academic needs,” Dosty said.