HISD reports significant drop in ‘high absenteeism’
Houston ISD officials reported that “high absenteeism” among teachers has dropped by more than 40% this academic year compared to the previous year.
HISD chief human resources officer Jessica Neyman said during a news conference Wednesday that the number of teachers who were absent more than 10 days was 180 during the fall semester, compared to 311 last fall. The drop comes amid a districtwide crackdown on excessive teacher absences and more enforcement of leave policies.
“The district is working hard and with urgency to significantly improve instruction and academic achievement,” Neyman said. “Obviously we cannot do this without our teachers present in the classrooms. There are only so many instructional days in the academic year. That means every single one of those days is precious, so teachers must report to work consistently.”
Neyman attributed the drop in high teacher absenteeism to the district providing more support to principals and managers when they enforce HISD’s employee leave policy, which states that employees can take no more than 15 days of state or local leave in a school year.
“We are being very mindful of the accountability aspect of the leave,” Neyman said. “For the leaves themselves, there’s always been a neutral leave policy and regulation. We are being very mindful that not exceeding that 15 days in a year is being applied equitably.”
Neyman said employees can take their allocated paid leave at their discretion along with other types of leave, such as temporary disability or bereavement, if they qualify, with no impact on their salary or any disciplinary action, such as being fired.
Employees “will not be written up for legitimately exercising their right to use every single day of their leave, but they may find themselves in a circumstance in a future year where they are facing something unexpected — everything from a car accident or an illness — and they are finding themselves wishing they had paid leave,” Neyman said.
However, as of this academic year, employees can not take more than two consecutive discretionary days or more than three consecutive sick days without a doctor’s note after the appointed HISD Board of Managers changed board policy in August. Employees also can not use unpaid days to take additional absences without approval.
Several teachers have previously told the Chronicle that they felt intimidated or afraid to take all of their earned time off after they received reprimands or memorandums warning them for taking “excessive absences,” although HISD officials said that principals were just providing courtesy reminders and clarity about the district’s leave policy.
Neyman said students would ultimately benefit from the consistent application of the absence policies without exceptions, and it is not a bad thing if some chronically absent employees are bothered by the strict enforcement of the regulation.
“We all know if you are the person that shows up and you look to your left and you look to your right, and your colleague is once again not in attendance, that can have a negative impact on employee morale,” Neyman said. “I think actually employee morale for quality staff will be improved as well as the student outcomes.”