Student absenteeism ‘troubling’: report
Child and Youth Advocate offers recommendations to government to address the issue
When the same seats remain empty in the classroom for long periods of time — and there are vague reasons why the students who are suppose to occupy those seats are not showing up for school — a collective strategy is required to get those students back to their studies, a new report states.
The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate in the province released a report Thursday that found Newfoundland and Labrador is not effectively addressing chronic student absenteeism.
“Many children and youth in Newfoundland and Labrador are routinely absent from school without excuse or reason,” Child and Youth Advocate Jacqueline Lake Kavanagh wrote in the report.
“Once they become disconnected from school, it can be hard to reverse. These children often lose their social connections, they drop behind in the curriculum, they miss opportunities to participate in school activities, and eventually they may disappear from school completely. There is a long list of root causes for these absences. Although this is not a new issue, it is a very troubling one which affects students across all grades and can have lasting impacts throughout their lives.”
Kavanagh said her review shows how children who are absent from school have needs that require responses from many different government services, not just schools.
“We must stop defining this solely as a school problem,” she said. “The issue truly demands a comprehensive approach that also involves the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development, the Department of Health and Community Services, and the regional health authorities.”
The report notes that chronic absenteeism is defined as unexcused school absences resulting in a student missing at least 10 per cent of the school year, or 18 days.
It also found that Canada has no systematic approach to collecting data, and information is incomplete on provincial/territorial government websites.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, however, produced data for the 2016-17 school year that indicated 10 per cent of approximately 66,000 students were absent for at least 18 days — both excused and unexcused.
The report notes that research reveals many factors contribute to chronic absenteeism involving individual students, families, schools and communities. Some of the factors include: learning disabilities, mentalhealth issues for children and parents, child disengagement from school, negative parental attitudes about education, parental substance abuse, poverty, abusive parenting, domestic violence, weak relationships between teachers and students, inadequate connection between school and parents, racism in school, violence in school, insufficient school personnel, homelessness, and a community environment that does not support education.
The report also noted that the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development’s new child protection legislation — Children, Youth and Families Act — that received royal assent in the House of Assembly on May 31, 2018 does not provide guidance on the issue of chronic absenteeism.
Kavanagh says an interdisciplinary team is needed to design a comprehensive program addressing the variety of issues that accompany absenteeism.