Daily School Attendance

Charmaine Young-Waddy- Student Services Specialist

Sue DelaCruz- Supervising Pupil Personnel Worker

Why should a community care?

• “Each year's class of dropouts will cost Maryland taxpayers $42 million every year.”

• Every additional Maryland high school dropout costs the state approximately $1,555 a year in lost revenue, with total lifetime costs (in present value) of $35,180.”

• Drop outs have worse health and greater health risks as adults than do their peers who graduate as well as more frequent, negative contact with law enforcement

Even ONE dropout is too many…

But what does “dropping out” have to do with daily attendance?

Frequent absences from school can be devastating to a child’s future

Nationally- Five to seven and a half MILLION children miss over 10% of the days in a school year

But Charles County Public Schools has a good “Average Daily

Attendance” rate:

• 2014-2015- 94.6%• 2013-2014- 94.8%• 2012-2013- 94.6%• 2011-2012- 94.7%

So, why the concern?

2014-2015- 2,505 students missed more than 20 days of school

2013-2014- 2,297 students missed more than 20 days of school

2012-2013- 2,590 students missed more than 20 days of school

Do you realize that is an

ENTIRE MONTH OF SCHOOL?• Even missing two or three days a month can

add up to 20 or 30 days of missed instruction in a school year.

• It is not just missing ‘consecutive’ days that impacts achievement

• The ENTIRE class suffers when classmates miss instruction

• Students who are chronically absent in preschool, kindergarten and first grade are much less likely to read on grade level by the third grade

• Students who cannot read on grade level by the end of third grade are FOUR times more likely than proficient readers to drop out of high school

• By high school, irregular attendance is a better predictor of drop out than test scores.

• A study in Utah found that if a student is chronically absent (missing 18 or more days) for even ONE YEAR in grades 8 through 12 he/she is SEVEN times more likely to drop out of school than a student who has never been chronically absent

Chronic absenteeism affects students who benefit from school the most, especially students who are low-income, students of color, homeless children, students with disabilities, students who are highly mobile, and/or juvenile justice-involved youth.

Absenteeism is a direct link to failure

School Year Number of Retentions

Number of Retentions with 20 or more days of absence

Percentage of students who were retained AND had chronic absences

2013-2014 580 208 36%2014-2015 517 205 40%

Our Goal is achievementBUT…

Teachers cannot teach students who are not in their seats

What is Charles County doing about Chronic Absenteeism?

1. Hold students and their parents accountable for absenteeismAttendance data from previous year gathered and analyzedThe parent(s)/Guardians of every child who missed 20 or more

days during the 2014-15 school year has had a conference with the school and an attendance agreement/contract has been developed.Childs attendance history reviewed to look for patternsNeeds assessed for other school services and/or community referrals

2. Educate our community on the dangers of allowing children to miss school- even if it is “only one or two days a month”

3. Recognize, acknowledge and reward daily student attendanceSchool wide events –Whole class competitions, PBISRecognition and incentives- PBIS, Check in/check out, etc. Club and sports eligibility

4. Intervene early to create a culture that values, recognizes and rewards daily attendance

Connect with parentsConnect with studentsEngage the community

How are we doing it?

• Three tiered intervention and support plans

All

Some

Few

Our 5th graders are modeling and promoting daily attendance at our Elementary Schools

Thanks to the artists at Jennifer and Diggs

What if the POSITIVES don’t work?

Referral to PPW – investigate, evaluate, re-write the plan

Referral to Student Support Teams, CHIPS or 504 Teams OR Community Resources (as appropriate)

Referral to Ms. Young-Waddy for a board level hearing

Referral to the Assistant State’s Attorney for a meeting and a court monitored attendance contract

If the contract with the State’s Attorney is violated, the parents are taken to court – (9 cases currently in the courts)

Where are we right now?

As of October 16th :

31 possible days of school attendance

330 students have already missed 7or more days – 70 at the elementary level– 59 at the middle level – 211 at the high school level

They have already missed 23% of this years instruction!

As of October 16th-572 students have been tardy to school

5 or more times already this year! 98 at the elementary level73 at the middle level401 at the high school level

Students arriving late not only miss instruction themselves but disrupt the learning of others when they come in at the middle of a lesson

Charles County Ahead of the Nation!

October 26, 2015- Received notice from the Attorney General (Loretta Lynch) the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Sylvia Burwell), The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Juli`an Castro) and the Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan) that they have:

Identified chronic absenteeism as a “National problem that seriously undermines our efforts to improve education and life outcomes among our youth”• State and local agencies – told to take four action

steps immediatelyAction Step One: Generate and act on absentee data DONEAction Step Two: Create and deploy positive messages and measures DONEAction Step Three: Focus Communities on addressing chronic absenteeism DOING

Action Step Four: Ensure responsibility across sectors Doing

We began our “EVERY STUDENT EVERY DAY” campaign over two

years ago!

It is now in place in EVERY school at EVERY level

THANK YOU for your continued support

For more information on how you and/or your business can help- please call 301-934-7333 or e-mail sdelacruz@bbcoe.com or cyoungwaddy@ccboe.com