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برچسب: absenteeism

  • How schools can go the extra mile to reduce absenteeism

    How schools can go the extra mile to reduce absenteeism


    A teacher’s aide sits with a kindergartner on the first day of school at George Washington Elementary School in Lodi Unified.

    Diana Lambert

    In today’s world, families have numerous school choices for their children and often rely on the experiences of neighbors, family and friends for advice. Families’ perceptions of the school — how they feel when they walk into the front office, their ability to provide feedback and feel heard and valued, and their access to school staff — are all crucial to improving student attendance, engagement and performance.

    This might sound a lot like customer service, and that’s precisely what it is.

    Just as in the business world, positive interactions between schools and their families directly influence satisfaction, loyalty and trust. According to the K12 Insight report on customer service in schools, these interactions can enhance student outcomes, enrollment, attendance and behavior.

    Children in poverty, children of color and children with disabilities are three times more likely to be chronically absent. A welcoming school that goes the extra mile to create a sense of belonging and build bonds with families can take proactive measures to address attendance challenges.

    This school year, schools should aim to create and nurture a sense of belonging and common purpose with families and the community. Here are some actionable suggestions:

    Create a family-friendly environment

    Families should feel comfortable touring and visiting the school. A welcoming environment includes convenient parking, clear signage, cleanliness, a friendly and helpful front office staff, a comfortable and inviting waiting area, translated materials, posted family engagement activities and events, and flyers informing families of enrichment opportunities available after school and in the community. When interacting with the school, families should find the staff knowledgeable, helpful and responsive to their concerns. To go the extra mile, schools can:

    • Advertise principal office hours when parents and students can stop by.
    • Promote networking among families during an open house by organizing grade-level meet-and-greet events and team-building activities.
    • Use student pickup and drop-off times as golden opportunities to make quick and friendly connections with families.
    • Post empowering messages for families on the school outdoor sign.
    • Actively recruit families to support decision-making and help identify the school’s vision and goals.

    Enhance family engagement with clear and honest communication

    Effective communication with families is clear, relevant and personalized. Go beyond good intentions and engage in meaningful conversations that can lead to improved student learning.

    Teachers can make a great first impression before school starts or at the beginning of the year by making a welcome phone call, sending a postcard, email, letter or any other form of communication that helps families get to know their child’s teachers.

    Encourage teachers to be relatable by sharing tidbits of their own lives; being a real person goes a long way in building relationships. Let families know the best way to contact their teacher for questions, guidance or updates on student learning progress.

    Transparent and honest communication builds trust. Prioritize communication linked to learning. Share student progress data promptly, inform families when and how students will be tested, and show parents specific activities and strategies for home support. Report cards and parent-teacher conferences are not enough; families need concrete and personalized information and guidance to support learning. To go the extra mile:

    • Implement quarterly listening circles with diverse groups of families to value parents’ perspectives and ideas and support school improvement.
    • Anticipate communication barriers by understanding each family’s preferred language and communication method.
    • Create school policies to allow teachers to regularly connect with families and build time into the schedule to make it possible.

    Expand engagement access for all families

    Traditionally, schools collect family engagement data based on family attendance at school events and activities. Often, this means counting the regulars — the ones who come time after time. This school year, challenge your team to count the families who were unable to attend the event, especially if the event is focused on student learning.

    Divide the number of absent families by grade level and ask teachers to reach out to their families to share the information they missed and build trust. Take this opportunity to learn more about the family, build trust, and open new lines of communication. Create space for teachers to share what they learn with their grade-level team. To go the extra mile:

    • Adjust engagement opportunities using family feedback and suggestions from prior years.
    • Leverage nonclassroom staff to facilitate mini-make-up sessions for families who were unable to attend the learning-focused events.

    Genuine family engagement happens away from school — it happens at the dinner table, in car rides and during everyday parent-child interactions and family dynamics. Strengthening relationships with families can enrich the way families support learning and provide valuable insights into the children you teach.

    There’s something incredibly heartwarming about reading parents’ social media posts expressing their appreciation for their child’s school. These parents highlight their favorite and trusted teachers, describe a sense of community and belonging, and invite new families to join in on school activities, volunteer opportunities, and decision-making committees. Their loyalty to the school is unmistakable.

    Efforts like those listed above can enable schools to build stronger, more supportive communities that foster student success and create a welcoming environment for everyone involved.

    Let’s make this school year the best one yet by going the extra mile for our families.

    •••

    Maria Paredes is a senior engagement manager on WestEd’s Family and Community Engagement team. A version of this post first appeared in the WestEd Bulletin in August and is reposted here with permission.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. We welcome guest commentaries with diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • The difference between chronic truancy and chronic absenteeism | Quick Guide

    The difference between chronic truancy and chronic absenteeism | Quick Guide


    Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

    Nearly a quarter of California’s K-12 students missed several weeks’ worth of school during the 2022-23 school year — a decrease of 5 percentage points in chronic absenteeism from the previous school year, but a sign of the lingering effects of the pandemic.

    Even as schools re-opened for in-person instruction, chronic absences shot up from 12.1% pre-pandemic to 30% during the 2021-22 school year.

    Such a sharp rise has increased discussion about why the absences are occurring. But having a certain number of absences in one school year can lead to various different outcomes for students, and potentially for their parents, depending on how they are recorded.

    If recorded as unexcused, the student can be considered chronically truant. If recorded as excused, or as a mix of excused and unexcused, the student can then be considered chronically absent.

    But what is the difference between the two, and why does it matter?

    This guide aims to clarify those questions and inform both students and parents on the importance of how absences are recorded.

    Truancy, habitual truancy, chronic truancy — what is the difference?

    California law states that a student is considered truant after three unexcused absences of more than 30 minutes each during a school year.

    If a student is reported as truant three or more times during the same school year and a school staff member has made a concerted effort to meet with the student and their parents to discuss the absences, they are then considered habitually truant.

    Once a student is habitually truant, they can be referred to a local student attendance review board, or SARB. The SARB will open a case during which the family must sign an attendance contract stipulating their child will attend school regularly.

    A student who is labeled as chronically truant has unexcused absences for 10% or more days during the school year. Given that a typical school year totals about 180 days, a student missing 10% of the school year would equal about a month’s worth of instructional time.

    It is at this point, once the student is chronically truant, that a school district can refer the case to a district attorney’s office. Once there, the district attorney has the discretion to charge the parent or guardian with an infraction or misdemeanor that could potentially result in fines or jail time for the parent.

    How is that different from chronic absenteeism?

    The difference is in the way that a student’s absences are reported.

    Chronic absenteeism is defined as a student missing 10% or more of the school year — regardless of whether the absences are excused or unexcused.

    If a student’s absences are mostly excused, they are more likely to be labeled as chronically absent. If they go unexcused, a student could quickly end up being labeled as truant.

    Why does it matter to understand the difference between chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy?

    Both chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy include various levels of intervention from schools. Schools ar supposed to check in with students who are missing classes and be offered support to address their basic needs, including meetings with parents to discuss solutions, and more.

    But if those interventions do not solve the problem and a student continues missing class, only one of the two — truancy — involves potential fines and jail time for parents.

    The involvement of the court system in truancy, but not in absenteeism, is why it is important to understand the difference between the two.

    Additionally, information from families regarding student absences can provide school staff with insight into what a student might be experiencing and, in turn, help them better support the family. If the school knows a student is dealing with housing insecurity or transportation issues, for example, it could connect the family with the local homeless liaison, who would then refer them to available resources.

    What is considered an excused absence?

    California law has a list of over a dozen reasons for excusing an absence. That list includes, but is not limited to:

    • Illness, which includes mental and behavioral health
    • Quarantine
    • Appointments with medical professionals such as optometrists, dentists or physicians
    • Funeral services
    • Jury duty
    • Illness of a student’s child
    • Participation in cultural events

    The full list of excusable reasons can be found at this link.

    Included in the list is the option to excuse an absence at the discretion of a school administrator. For example, a school might know that a child has unstable access to transportation, which results in being late to school or absent. In such cases, a school administrator could excuse the absence without requiring a note.

    Is one label worse/better than the other?

    Both chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy involve a significant number of student absences, and education experts agree that loss of instructional time negatively impacts students in their academic and personal development. With that in mind, both chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy are considered detrimental to students.

    Certain demographics, however, are more likely to have unexcused absences: Black, Native American, Latino, and Pacific Islander students, regardless of socioeconomic status, according to a 2023 PACE report.

    The report, Disparities in Unexcused Absences Across California Schools, also found that socioeconomically advantaged students were less likely to have unexcused absences.

    In an example provided by the report’s co-author, Hedy Chang, she explained: Two students can be absent from school due to illness but only one of them has health insurance. The student without insurance is less likely to see a doctor and, as a result, less likely to return to school with a doctor’s note. In this example, the student who is socioeconomically disadvantaged has a higher likelihood of reporting an unexcused absence.





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