Egad!! Did You Know That Chronic Absenteeism Impedes Student Learning?

A story, maybe apocryphal, Al Shanker was asked his reaction to sharply declining test scores after the forty day 1968 strike, he replied, “thank goodness”

Excessive student absence, now called Chronic Absenteeism, (usually defined as absent 10% of a school year, in New York State eighteen days) has been getting more and more attention. Perhaps the hierarchy is hip to kids, learning is tied to coming to school every day and coming to school is tied to the quality of instruction, kids sometimes vote with their feet.

The major education press is covering the issue, National Public Radio (3/10/24) “Chronic Absenteeism in US Classrooms is Presenting Unique Challenges to Teacher Tracking Student Data Falls Short,” Education Week (1/24), The Sticking Power of Chronic Absenteeism, and the Hechinger Report, Tracking Student Data Falls Short in Combating Absenteeism at School.

New York City, sort of under the radar is attacking this sticky issue. Each district has an Attendance Compliance Coordinator, each school an Attendance Plan, an Attendance Team, the Department has software (Insight) accessible at the end of the school day listing the attendance of every student, identifies students approaching chronic absenteeism and who are chronically absent, schools are expected to contact students not appearing as soon as possible after start time, staff members, ideally calling the same families. The Coordinators meet with other family service providers (i.e., ACS, etc.) to attempt to coordinate contacts to families.

Is the process successful? How do you define “success”?

This is not a one-time fix, the process must be embedded in school districts and schools. Ideally school cultures should blend collaboration and accountability.

The many city agencies too frequently fail to coordinate, if a family is moved to another shelter do you move the student to a school closest to the new shelter or remain in their school and provide busing?  It many take weeks to arrange for busing, schools are not in the shelter system loop and mark the student absent.

Some schools vigorously implement their plan, others half-heartedly, the competence of school leaders vary. 

Principals are over-burdened. This year half of the elementary schools are implementing the Phonics reading program, akin to learning to swim by being pushed off the end of the diving board, materials in many schools were slow to arrive, professional development difficult to fit into schedules, attendance just isn’t a priority in all schools.

I’ve been told over and over again, “poverty is not an excuse,” yes; however poverty is a reality.

Ten years ago the Center for NYC Affairs at the New School published, “A Better Picture of Poverty: What Chronic Absenteeism and Risk Load Reveal About NYC’s Lowest Income Elementary Schools.” Read here

The report reflects a Bloomberg funded three-year initiative to improve chronic absenteeism, with modest success, sadly the de Blasio administration moved on and created another initiative, named Thrive, which did not.

The report looks closely at NYC’s schools and documents the risk factors that plague struggling schools …Researchers found that from kindergarten through third grade 10% or more of students were chronically absent …scores on standardized tests were far below city averages. And many of the students lived in deep poverty with high rates of homelessness, child abuse reports and male unemployment.

The researchers identify 18 risk load factors, closely associated with chronic absenteeism and clearly declared the risk load factors and chronic absenteeism were intertwined, you must implement in-school practices as well as policies to alleviate deep poverty.

The author’s conclusion: “The best strategy to improve attendance is to improve school quality and enhance direct student supports.”

Generational poverty is commonplace, while in each generation a cohort of kids breaks free from the chains of poverty too many fail.  School is the ladder out of poverty, the CUNY colleges lead the nation in social mobility, students who enter college in poverty and upon graduation move into the middle class.

Chronic absenteeism begins in pre-k and becomes more difficult to address in each grade,

Hopefully the current concentration continues, interagency coordination improves, and superintendents continue to emphasize the importance of attendance efforts. Every kid pulled out of the morass of the streets, every kid engaged in the classroom is a success story, we just need more success stories.