A fellow at Harvard College’s Middle for Schooling Coverage Analysis studied what occurred the next 2021-22 faculty yr. The outcomes, printed on-line within the journal Academic Analysis and Coverage Evaluation on Feb. 5, 2024, had been woefully disappointing: the attendance charges of low-income college students didn’t enhance in any respect. Low-income college students with a monitor file of lacking faculty continued to overlook as a lot faculty the subsequent yr, regardless of efforts to assist them return.
The one college students to enhance their attendance charges had been greater revenue college students, whose households earned an excessive amount of to qualify for the free or decreased value lunch program. The attendance of extra advantaged college students who had been flagged purple for “off track” (chronically absent) improved by 1 to 2 proportion factors. That’s good, however 4 out of 5 of the purple “off track” college students got here from low-income households. Solely 20% of the pool of chronically absent college students had been helped … a bit.
The promoting level for early warning programs is that they may help determine college students earlier than they’re derailed, when it’s simpler to get again into the routine of going to highschool. However, distressingly, neither wealthy nor poor college students who had been flagged yellow for being “at risk” noticed an enchancment in attendance.
Yusuf Canbolat, the Harvard fellow, defined to me that early warning programs solely flag college students. They don’t inform educators how you can assist college students. Each baby’s purpose for not coming to highschool is exclusive. Some are bullied. Others have bronchial asthma and their dad and mom are fearful about their well being. Nonetheless others have fallen so behind of their faculty work that they can’t comply with what’s occurring within the classroom.
Frequent approaches, reminiscent of calling dad and mom and mailing letters, are typically more practical with higher-income households, Canbolat defined to me. They’re extra more likely to have the assets to comply with via with counseling or tutoring, for instance, and assist their baby return to highschool.
Low-income households, in contrast, typically have bigger issues that require help faculties can’t present. Many low-income kids misplaced a mother or father or a guardian to COVID and are nonetheless grieving. Many households in poverty want housing, meals, employment, healthcare, transportation and even assist with laundry. That always requires partnerships with group organizations and social service businesses.
Canbolat mentioned that college workers on this district tried to give you options that had been tailor-made to a toddler’s circumstances, however giving a household the title of a counseling middle isn’t the identical as ensuring the household is getting the counseling it wants. And there have been so many children flagged for being in danger that the colleges couldn’t start to handle their wants in any respect. As an alternative, they targeted on essentially the most extreme persistent absence instances, Canbolat mentioned.
Hedy Chang, government director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that’s working with faculties to enhance attendance, mentioned {that a} case administration strategy to absenteeism isn’t sensible when so many college students aren’t coming to highschool. Many faculties, she mentioned, might need just one or two social staff specializing in attendance and their caseloads shortly turn into overloaded. When almost half of the scholars in a faculty have an attendance drawback, system-wide approaches are wanted, Chang mentioned.
One systematic strategy, she mentioned, is to cease taking an adversarial tone with households — threatening dad and mom with fines or going to court docket, or college students with suspensions for truancy violations. “That doesn’t work,” Chang mentioned.
She recommends that faculties create extra methods for college kids to construct relationships with adults and classmates at college in order that they sit up for being there. That may vary from after-school packages and sports activities to advisory durations and paying excessive schoolers to mentor elementary faculty college students.
“The most important thing is kids need to know that when they walk into school, there’s someone who cares about them,” mentioned Chang.
Regardless of the disappointing outcomes of utilizing an early warning system to fight absenteeism, each researchers and specialists say the dashboards shouldn’t be jettisoned. Chang defined that they nonetheless assist faculties perceive the scale and the scope of their attendance drawback, see patterns and be taught if their options are working.
I used to be shocked to learn in a current College Pulse Panel survey carried out by the Division of Schooling in November 2023 that solely 15% of college leaders mentioned they had been “extremely concerned” about scholar absences. In high-poverty neighborhoods, there was extra concern, however nonetheless solely 26%. Provided that the variety of college students who’re chronically absent from faculties has nearly doubled to 28% from round 15% earlier than the pandemic, everybody needs to be very involved. If we don’t discover a resolution quickly, tens of millions of youngsters shall be unable to get the training they should stay a productive life. And we are going to all pay the value.