Truancy dropping in SFPS

Staff, parent-notification system has helped reduce number of chronically absent students, report says

Santa Fe Public Schools, which in recent years has had one of the highest truancy rates in the state, has dramatically improved student attendance by hiring truancy coaches and implementing a parent notification system, a new report says.

The rate of chronically absent students in the district fell to 14 percent in 2016-17 from 28 percent two years earlier, according to the truancy prevention report presented to the school board earlier this week.

The city’s two main high schools, in particular, have struggled with high rates of truancy. But the new report says Capital High’s rate of habitually truant students dropped to 25.9 percent last year from 33.3 percent in 2015-16 and 35.4 percent in 2014-15, and Santa Fe High’s rate fell to 13.8 percent from 20.8 percent in 2015-16 and 26 percent in 2014-15.

“There are some reasons to celebrate,” Gabe Romero, director of school security, told board members Tuesday. “Santa Fe has always been challenged with a large amount of truancy, and getting students to go to school is one of the most important things to do.”

At stake is a student’s ability to succeed, experts say. “Chronic student absence reduces even the best teacher’s ability to provide learning opportunities,” the National Center for Education Statistics said in a recent report, which cited a number of studies on how habitual truancy negatively affects student performance.

Romero said as much, calling attendance “a powerful indicator of success in school.”

According to state regulations, a student is habitually truant if he or she has accumulated 10 or more days of unexcused absences in a school year, meaning the absences were not permitted because of a sickness or family emergency.

In 2014, under then-Superintendent Joel Boyd, the district began examining student truancy after a report showed its overall rate of chronically absent students in 2013-14 was 29 percent, compared to a statewide average of 16 percent. Officials began compiling attendance rates at different levels: students who had three or more total absences in a school year, those who racked up seven or more absences and those who had 18. What they found was that the high schools and middle schools had the highest rates of students who were chronically absent.

To combat the problem, the district awarded an $82,000 annual contract to a California-based company, School Innovations & Achievement, for attendance tracking, early warning and parent-notification services. Throughout the 2016-17 school year, the company sent 25,000 letters in both English and Spanish to parents of children who were missing several days of school.

School staff scheduled close to 400 parent conferences with students and parents to address attendance concerns.

In addition, the district hired three truancy coaches, with one assigned to Ortiz Middle School, one for Capshaw and De Vargas middle schools — which have been combined to create the new Milagro Middle School this year — and one assigned to both Capital High School and Santa Fe High School. The city of Santa Fe agreed to provide funds for the high school coach.

The district also is seeking funding to hire a fourth truancy coach.

The efforts have been successful, Romero said.

The new report shows there was a slight increase in absences last year among high school seniors and at a few schools, including Amy Biehl Community School and Ortiz Middle School. Meanwhile, absences among 11th-graders in 2016-17 dropped to 20 percent from 33 percent the year before.

Overall, Romero said, the truancy trend is “going in the right direction — lower and lower.”

Evelyn Leger, the truancy coach at Milagro Middle School, said parents often have no idea that their children are missing school.

But sometimes, she said, when she calls a student and parents in to discuss the problem, she discovers that the parents are aware of the student’s poor attendance.

“The mom or dad will disclose at that point that the students are home because they have no one else to care for their younger child on certain days,” she said.

She then works to find child care resources for the younger sibling so the older one can return to school.

About 10 percent of the district’s students are considered homeless by federal standards, which aggravates the truancy problem, Leger said.

Spokesman Jeff Gephart said the district has created two task forces to study the reasons why some students continually miss school. One of the groups is focused on truancy, and the other is focused on preparing students for careers.

“Is it just high school kids being high school kids?” Gephart said. “Does it have to do with students having to work? Maybe they need to work. Maybe, financially, their family needs them to work. Maybe students aren’t engaged. We have to look at the root causes.”

School board President Lorraine Price said the report shows the district is “turning the corner” on reducing truancy.

Of the drop in attendance for 12thgraders, Price said, “You wonder how much of that is senioritis.”