Digital truancy
Officials: Some students still ‘disconnected’ from distance learning
In a school year unlike any other, districts have to be mindful of a new sort of attendance problem — digital truancy.
Though many school districts opted for hybrid or in-person learning models, most have at least some students learning remotely. There are a total of about 161,645 fully remote students, according to the state Department of Education. That means nearly 32 percent of the students enrolled in Connecticut schools are learning from home.
And while many officials said the year is off to a relatively smooth start, most also reported that at least some digital learners have been “disconnected” during the initial few weeks. The problem seems particularly pervasive in New Haven, one of the districts that opted to go fully remote to start the year.
In the first week, 14,762
students were marked present at least one day, while
5,446 were absent at least one day, district officials said. The numbers improved a bit during the second week with
18,208 present and 2,004 absent.
The number of absent students has been further reduced to about 1,500, according to Keisha ReddHannans, New Haven’s assistant superintendent for instructional leadership. ReddHannans said each school has an attendance team, which is comprised of an administrator, social worker, school psychologist, school counselor, teachers and dropout prevention workers to address issues that are causing students to be absent.
“This team is focused on identifying students that did not report to school and they made phone calls or home visits to these children,” Redd-Hannans said. “We plan to continue these efforts to identify the remaining students through the ongoing efforts of our school-based attendance teams” and the Office of Youth, Family & Community.
In Danbury, where schools also started remotely due to a
COVID-19 outbreak in the city, about 90 percent of students were logging on to the remote learning system, Superintendent Sal Pascarella said.
Pascarella said school staff members have followed up with families to resolve issues with students who were not logging in for classes.
“It’s being diligent and responsible and reaching out and finding out why folks aren’t engaged,” he said.
For those who need it, the district has provided technology, including hotspots for families without internet.
“Connectivity is good,” Pascarella said. “Technology is not getting in the way.”
The state Department of Education defines attendance in distance learning as spending at least half the “normal” school day doing one or more of the following activities — synchronous virtual classes (live classes streamed in real time using a videoconferencing platform); virtual meetings with a teacher, counselor or someone else using a videoconferencing platform; staying logged in to the electronic/virtual learning system; or completing or submitting assignments.
Last June, the state conducted a survey of 170 of the
201 potential districts to determine participation when all schools went remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the survey responses, about 74 percent
(391,000 students) were fully participating in the remote learning offered by their district. Another 14 percent (approximately 76,000 students) were partially participating, 8 percent (about
40,000) were minimally participating, and 4 percent
(21,000) did not participate. But Peter Yazbak, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said he expects this year to be different since everyone should be more prepared for online learning.
“In March 2020, districts, educators and students were abruptly forced to move to remote learning, causing many issues due to barriers to greater participation in remote learning, such as lack of access to a device in the home, lack of internet access in the home, and family, health and trauma issues,” he wrote in an email.
Yazbak said state and local officials have “studied lessons learned from last spring and (taken) several tangible action steps to be better prepared to deliver hybrid and remote learning this fall.”
For instance, he said, to help address access issues, the state has provide 82,000 devices — including Chromebooks and Windows laptops — for families that need them, and the Partnership for CT donated another 60,000 laptops. Most of the devices will be “targeted primarily to high-need districts and their students,” Yazbak said.
The state also implemented new weekly and monthly forms of data collection on student attendance. The weekly method required districts to report the total student enrollment; the learning model for each grade (in-person, hybrid or remote); the number of students who were fully remote; and the number of fully remote students who did not connect on a single school day during the week.
The monthly collection method asks districts to provide student-level membership and attendance data for those who were enrolled on the last day of the month.
In many districts, officials said they are optimistic about maintaining the attendance of digital students.
In Ansonia, for example, Superintendent of Schools Joseph DiBacco said about 3 percent of remote learners were disconnected the first week of school. However, that improved the second week, when 1.5 percent of remote learners (about 34 students) were disconnected.
“We have been very lucky because the teachers that are teaching students that opted in to remote learning are engaging and excited for this new experience,” DiBacco said. “Nothing is perfect and we have work to do but the community and staff are willing and the support of the community and staff makes this journey doable.”
In nearby Derby, 347 of the district’s 1,200 students have been engaged in distance learning, Superintendent of Schools Matthew Conway said. Of the 347 students, he said, 13 are disengaged, meaning they are not attending regularly. Attendance is taken daily and reported as required to the state every week.
“Overall, it’s been very positive,” Conway said. “We have provided laptops, Chromebooks and, when needed, hotspots to every student.”
He said he did this because “things can change any day.”
“We are prepared to convert to a hybrid schedule or full distance learning,” he said.
Other districts have reported mostly good attendance among their distance learners. Brookfield Superintendent John Barile said there has been “over a 99 percent attendance rate” for the district’s 494 students who have been learning completely from home.
“To ensure students maintain good attendance, we reach out to families and students as soon as we notice any drop in attendance, whether the student is in a remote learning model or attending in person,” Barile said.
Darien Superintendent Alan Addley said distance learning is going well in the district, where about 255 students have been participating in full distance learning.
“(We) had to respond to a few cases where students are meant to be in class and they logged on remotely,” Addley said, adding that’s “not unexpected to start.”