Guest Blog by Alison Courtney. Alison was a summer 2013 education fellow at
Civic Enterprises and is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the College of
William and Mary. She can be reached at
macourtney@email.wm.edu.
September is just around the corner, which means it’s back
to school for about 215 million students across the country.[i] Imagine
what the month of September could look like for them, with school experiences
as diverse as they are. I’m thinking of John, a math-loving 5th grader. During the first week of September, John has an
afternoon doctor’s appointment so his mom will take him out of class for half
the day. Mom’s not too concerned; John
will have an excused absence so he won’t get in trouble…and he needs to stay
healthy, right? The following week, John’s
dad’s car breaks will break down on the way to school, so John will spend the
morning with him at the mechanics before getting to school for the afternoon. The last week of the month, John and his
family will take off Friday to enjoy a long weekend visiting John’s
grandparents. That will be a whole month
of school, and only a few excused absences along the way.
Now let’s apply some math that John will be learning in his 5th
grade class. There are 4 school weeks in
the month and 5 school days each week, totaling 20 school days in September. With the half-day lost for the doctor’s
appointment, half-day lost for the car problem, and a full day lost for the family
vacation, John will miss a total of 2 days of school. Not bad, you might think. In actuality, it is bad. John will miss 10
percent of in-school time, including access to academic, social, and emotional
learning opportunities.
Missing 10 percent or more of school for any reason—excused
or unexcused—is actually an indication that a student is academically at risk.[ii] And,
important for John’s little sisters and brothers, chronic absence linked to
academic trouble isn’t just a secondary school problem—it can start as early as
kindergarten and pre-kindergarten.[iii]
Now, John may have family members, friends, or mentors who will
make sure he reads or does math problems while in the doctor’s waiting room, at
the mechanics, or on his Grandpa’s lap, but even if that is the case, chronic
absenteeism is a strong indication that a student will experience academic
trouble and eventually drop out of high school.[iv]
Nationwide, as many as 10-15 percent of students (7.5
million) miss nearly a month of school every year.[v] That’s 135 million days of lost time in the
classroom. In some cities, as many as 1
in 4 students are missing that much school.[vi] For students without strong out-of-school
academic supports, those who miss 10 percent face even greater risk of falling
off the track to graduate. They may be
more likely to miss additional days of school due to barriers such as lack of
access to health care, poor transportation, or not having a safe path to school.
This September, things could be different for John and the
millions of other students across the country who are chronically absent. The first-ever Attendance Awareness
Month, sponsored by Attendance Works in partnership with America’s Promise
Alliance, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Civic Enterprises, Points of
Light and is supported by a growing list of other national
partners, aims to rally communities around the importance of attendance and
its role in academic achievement. People
are sharing their activities on Attendance Works’ Community Action
Map as well as running PSA’s, writing op-eds, and posting on social media
sites. The Count
Us In! Toolkit is a great resource, providing ideas for getting involved in
Attendance Awareness Month. For example,
students at a school in Oakland, California created a video
about how students can achieve their goals tomorrow if they attend school
today. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg
launched an attendance initiative in 2010 that has already significantly
reduced chronic absence in its pilot schools.
The initiative, Every Student, Every Day, relies on data tracking, school
attendance committees and Success Mentors who work with students at risk of
dropping out.[vii]
This September, help John and other chronically absent
students achieve in school by spreading the word about the importance of
attending school every day! You can
learn more at Attendance Works,
or visit BoostUp to
use a new tool that allows you to chart the effect of missing school.
[i] United
States Census Bureau (2011, October). School
Enrollment. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/school/data/cps/2011/tables.html
[ii]
Balfanz, R., Byrnes, V. (2012, May). The
Importance of Being in School: A Report on Absenteeism in the Nation’s Public
Schools. Retrieved from http://new.every1graduates.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/FINALChronicAbsenteeismReport_May16.pdf
and Chang, H., Leong, C. (2013, May 24). Early
Intervention Matters: How Addressing Chronic Absence Can Reduce Dropout Rates. Retrieved
from http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Early-Intervention-NDPC-SD-webinar-FINAL-5-24-13.pdf
[iii]
Chang
[iv]
Balfanz
[v]
Balfanz
[vi]
Chang
[vii] Attendance
Works, America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, Points of Light, and the
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (2013, July). Count Us In! Working Together to Show That Every School Day Matters.
Retrieved from http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/AAM-toolkit-2.0-FINAL.pdf
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