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Curbing Chronic Early Absenteeism: Implications for Community School Collaboratives

Coalition of Community Schools National ForumApril 8, 2010Philadelphia , PA

Getting to Know You

•What is your role?_Educator _Community Agency Partner _Researcher /Evaluator _Advocate_Technical Assistance Provider _Other

•What kind of communities do you work in?_Urban _Rural _Suburban _Mix?

•What are the ages of the students you target? _ prek __elementary __middle school__high school __all ages

THE CHRONIC ABSENCE QUIZTRUE OR FALSE?

Attending Kindergarten regularly doesn’ t really matter.

We don’t need to worry about large numbers of students missing school until middle or high school.

Most educators monitor when students are absent for extended periods of time.

Because families are ultimately responsible for children getting to school every day, schools can’t do anything to address chronic absence.

Attendance Definitions Chronic Absence: missing 10% or more of

school over the course of an entire academic year for any reason. 10% was associated with declining academic performance in our research. No standard definition currently exists.

Truancy: refers only to unexcused absences

Average Daily Attendance: the percent of enrolled students who attend school each day

PresentersHedy N. Chang, Attendance Counts

Margarita Cotto-Hernandez, Burton Elementary School, Grand Rapids MI

Abe Fernandez, National Center for Community Schools, Children’s Aid Society, NYC

Sue Fothergill, Baltimore City Student Attendance Work Group

Myth #1

Attending Kindergarten regularly doesn’t really matter (FALSE)

Reality:Chronic Absence in K Affects

AcademicsAmong poor children, chronic absence in kindergarten predicted lower 5th grade

achievement.

Source: National Center for Children In Poverty

Source: Baltimore Education Research Consortium

Reality: Poor 6th Grade Attendance Predicts

Drop out

Myth #2

We don’t need to worry about large numbers of students missing school until middle or high school. (FALSE)

Reality:Chronic Early Absence Can Reach High

LevelsNationwide, 1 out of 10 K & 1st graders are chronically absent. (Source: NCCP).

Chronic early absence can be even higher in some localities. (Across 9 districts, ranged from 5% to 25% of K-3 graders).

Chronic Early Absence Across Localities

17.4%

12.9%

6.0%

13.79%

8.6%

12.0%

26.7%

22.7%

5.4%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Locality

%

*1st gr 3rd gr 4th gr 5th gr 6th gr 7th gr 8th gr 9th gr 10th gr

Chronic Absence in Baltimore MD

Source: Baltimore Education Research Consortium

Myth #3

Most educators regularly monitor when students are chronically absent. (FALSE)

Reality:Most Do Not Monitor Chronic

Absence•Schools typically only track data on average

daily attendance and truancy (unexcused absence).

•BUT both can mask high levels of chronic absence.

•Especially in the early grades, children are not likely to be home without the knowledge of an adult who can call in to say they will be absent.

Myth #4

Because families are ultimately responsible for children getting to school every day, schools can’t do anything to address chronic absence.

Reality:Schools + Communities CAN Make A

DifferenceCharacteristics of Effective Strategies

• Partner with community agencies to help parents carry out their responsibility to get children to school.

• Make chronic absence a priority, set a target and monitor progress over time.

• Examine factors contributing to chronic absence, especially from parent perspective

• Begin early ideally in Pre-K

• Combine universal and targeted strategies.

• Offer positive supports before punitive action.

A Comprehensive Programmatic Response

High Quality Engaging Educational Program

Attendance Incentives

Early outreach & case management to families

with poor attendance

Coordinated public agency and legal crisis response

Quality Early Care and Education Experiences

Family Engagement in School

Access to Preventative Health Care

Parent Education & Peer Support

Roll Regularly Taken in Caring Manner

Why Aren’t Schools and District Doing More to Address Chronic Absence?

Chronic Absence in NYC: Dramatic Findings in 2008 Study

The Center for New York City Affairs at The New Schoolanalyzed individual student attendance data citywidewith a focus on elementary students. The prevalence ofchronic absenteeism in grades K-5 shocked school officials and the broader public.

o One of every five students in grades K-5 was chronically absent. This number was as high as one in every three students in the poorest neighborhoods.

LEVELS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM BY DISTRICT

Citywide: Absenteeism Most Intense in Poor Neighborhoods

NYC PK-12 Trends Similar to Other Inner-City School Systems

COMPARING CHRONIC ABSENCE MEASURES PK-12

How could we do a better job of monitoring chronic absence?

Collecting and Monitoring Data On Collecting and Monitoring Data On Chronic absenceChronic absence

Attendance is tracked daily and in secondary schools by class in Baltimore City

Attendance data is uploaded to the principal’s dashboard weekly

Principals have access to an alert list of students on track to becoming chronically absent, a list of students who were chronically absent in the prior school year, and the school’s chronic absence rate as compared to its own rate in the prior school year

Burton’s School Attendance Team:Weekly Meeting ( 1 hr. to 1 & half hrs. )Social worker from the local department of

human services, community school coordinator, district attendance specialist, attendance secretary, and principal. Principal leads the meeting.

Meeting involves – review of excessive absences and/or tardiness. Letters to excessive absences and/or tardies students, decide which students will receive a call and/or home visit based on the TR data.

What are effective interventions to reduce chronic absence?

Effective Strategies – Burton Elementary

Offering attendance incentives (STAR)Sharing the research with parents on chronic

absenteeism and its effect on their children especially in the early grades (Pre-K, K, & 1st).

Not “letting up” -- good attendance is expected and that tardiness is not acceptable.

Following-up on chronic attendance/tardy students/families.

Providing families with resources to remove barriers that are keeping their children from being at school.

Tiered Strategies to Improve Tiered Strategies to Improve AttendanceAttendance

Tier 1 – Universal Strategies (for all students)• Establish a school-going culture including. response to

each absence, welcoming back absent students, communicating the importance of regular attendance to the home.

• Utilize Global Connect or make phone calls home after each absence

• Offer classroom attendance incentives for improved good attendance

• Utilize school attendance incentives such as attendance ceremonies, special trips for high attenders and rewarding parents whose children regularly attend

Tiered Strategies to Improve Tiered Strategies to Improve AttendanceAttendance

Tier 2 – Intervention Strategies (for students who miss 5 or more days of school)

• Refer a student with attendance problems to the SST including all of the adults who touch the child’s life (e.g. school nurse, after school providers, and the community schools coordinator.)

• Assign special activities to increase at risk student’s feeling of belonging

• Develop attendance plan with student & parents• Provide the family with an alarm clock• Refer to programs like Truancy Court or B-SMART

Tiered Strategies to Improve Tiered Strategies to Improve AttendanceAttendance

Tier 3 – Recovery Strategies (for students who are missing at least 10% of their days on role)

• Involve external partners in the provision of needed services such as mental health providers

• Conduct a home visit

• Refer the student to the Attendance Office

District Systems Reforms Affecting District Systems Reforms Affecting AttendanceAttendance

• Reforming school suspension policy • Reducing the number of school

transitions by creating schools grades k-8 and 6-12

• Increasing student and family options by creating and supporting innovation, contract, charter and transformation schools

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Results to Date Results to Date

• % Missing 20 or More Days of SchoolSCHOOL LEVEL % Chronic

Absence

2006-7

% Chronic Absence

2007-8

% Chronic Absence

2008-9

ELEMENTARY GRADES 14.0  12.4 11.3MIDDLE GRADES 33.7 27.0 18.6HIGH SCHOOL 43.5 42.1 42.0ALL CITY SCHOOLS 28.7 25.6 23.2

Self Assessment Exercise•Spend 5 minutes reviewing and beginning

to fill out self-assessment tool

•Share results with a partner

•Discuss implications for the role of community schools in addressing chronic absence

DISCUSSION:

What can community schools do?

Contact Information

Hedy N Chang; hnchang@earthlink.net http://www.chronicabsence.net

Abe Fernandez ; abef@childrensaidsociety.org

Sue Fothergill ; bluesue73@hotmail.com

Margarita Cotto Hernandez; HernandezM@grps.k12.mi.us