Why Now is the
Best Time to Analyze, Understand, Plan, and Implement Strategic Interventions
for your Most-Absent Students
Dear Colleagues,
Earlier this year, on March 20th,
I asserted that (grade) Retention in NOT an Intervention.
[CLICK HERE to Revisit that Blog]
In the context of that discussion, I talked
about the importance of determining why students are not making academic
progress, and stated that students who are absent due to- - for example- -
medical issues should not automatically be retained if they can “catch up” with
additional support.
_ _ _ _
_
Today, however, I want to directly discuss
the issue of student absences- - especially as this topic was highlighted
earlier this week in a recently-released U.S. Department of Education Office
for Civil Rights report, A First Look:
Key Highlights on Equity and Opportunity Gaps in Our Nation’s Public
Schools.
[CLICK HERE for Report.]
This report, based on the 2013-2014 school-year
survey results from virtually every school district in the country (involving
over 50 million students), reported on a host of issues- - school discipline,
restraints and seclusions, early learning, college and career readiness,
education in juvenile justice facilities, teacher and staffing equity, and . .
. chronic student absences.
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
The Crisis of Chronically Absent Students
The First Look report defined a chronically
absent student as one missing 15 or more school days during the
school year. The Report cited the
following national data from the 2013-2014 school year:
* Nationwide, more than 6.5 million
students – or 13% of all students – were chronically absent. 19% of all high school students, 12% of
middle school students, and 10% of elementary school students were chronically
absent.
* In nearly 500 school districts, at least
30% of their students missed at least three weeks of school.
* More than 3 million high school
students – or 18% of all high school students – were chronically absent.
* 20% or more of American Indian or Alaska
Native (26%), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (25%), black (22%),
multiracial (21%), and Latino (20%) high school students were chronically
absent.
* High school students with disabilities
served by IDEA were 1.3 times as likely to be chronically absent as high school
students without disabilities.
* 20% of all English learner high school students
were chronically absent.
_ _ _ _
_
* More than 3.5 million elementary school
students – or 11% of all elementary school students – were chronically
absent.
* American Indian or Alaska Native and Native
Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander elementary school students were twice as
likely to be chronically absent as white elementary school students.
* Black elementary school students were 1.4
times as likely to be chronically absent as white elementary school students.
* Elementary school students with
disabilities served by IDEA are 1.5 times as likely to be chronically absent as
elementary school students without disabilities.
_ _ _ _
_
* In addition, incident rates of chronic
absence were higher for non-white students when more than 50% of their
teachers were absent for more than 10 days.
_ _ _ _
_
Critically, among the most-concerning
long-term effects of chronic student absences are (a) poor academic progress- -
especially in reading, and (b) the high potential for dropping out of high
school.
Thus, if we can determine and successfully
change the underlying reasons why these students are absent, schools
will need to find effective ways to help these students to academically “catch
up” at the elementary school level, and to re-sequence their missed courses at
the secondary level.
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
Analyzing and Addressing Chronically Absent
Students
In order to address the problem of chronically
absent students, districts and schools first need an early warning system
to identify and track these students, and a Student Assistance Team (or
the equivalent) to analyze the most-troublesome students involved to determine the
underlying reasons for their behavior.
Relative to the former, most districts now
have either a data management system (e.g., PowerSchool) or a School Data
Dashboard that tracks student data in real time. Given this, decision rules should be
programmed into the Dashboard so that school administrators receive a “red
flag” every time a student “triggers” the system.
Students, for example, should trigger the
system when they have
* Been absent for 10% of the school days in
any quarter (five days of school in a 45-day quarter);
* Been absent or tardy to school for 3 days
in a row; or
* Skipped a specific class (at the secondary
level) 3 times in a quarter.
Initially, the first two triggers should result in a call to the
parents/guardians by a school official, with a corresponding e-mail or
text. These triggers should occur
whether an absence is excused or unexcused.
At first, the third trigger should be
personally and directly addressed by the involved teacher(s) with the specific
student (and his/her parents/guardians).
If the problem persists, a school administrator should become involved.
_ _ _ _
_
When a student exhibits a persistent, resistant,
or significant pattern of school absence, school administrators (or, for that
matter, any educator) should refer the case to the Student Assistance Team. This multidisciplinary team should include
the best academic and behavioral assessment and intervention professionals in
or available to the school, and it should meet on a regular basis- - not just
for students with school attendance problems, but for any student with a
persistent or significant academic or social, emotional, or behavioral problem.
A primary responsibility of this Team is to
determine why the student is chronically absent, why s/he has not
responded to previous behavior change approaches (as above), and what additional
services, supports, strategies, or interventions are needed.
This responsibility should be met by using
a data-based problem-solving process.
This process uses data to confirm any hypotheses posited to explain the
student’s behavior, and it does not assume that the behavior is a “discipline
or motivational problem”- - unless that also is confirmed.
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
Hypotheses for Chronic Absenteeism
The ultimate goal of the problem-solving
process, here, is to facilitate a change in a student’s behavior such that he
or she is regularly attending school, participating in classroom activities,
and learning and mastering the academic material.
To accomplish this, one or more members of
the Student Assistance Team (SAT)- -with the student’s current teacher(s) - -initially need to:
* Review the student’s cumulative records
and educational history
* Determine the current functional academic
and behavioral skill level of the student
*
Interview teachers and others who have worked with the student and/or attempted
previous school attendance interventions
* Interview the student, and his/her
parents/guardians
* Discount or consider any relevant health,
mental health, or wellness factors
* Observe the student when s/he is in school
and in class
_ _ _ _
_
With this background information, hypotheses
can be generated, confirmed (or rejected), and linked to strategic services,
supports, strategies, or interventions.
Among some possible hypotheses to explain
a student’s chronic absenteeism are the following:
* The student does not have any positive
relationships or connections with the school, his/her teachers, and/or his/her
peers; or has experienced significant negative interactions in the past
* The student is avoiding past or current
teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, hazing, or physical threats (from
peers or staff)- - and does not feel safe at school (this especially includes
students who are disabled, English language learners, from “targeted” minority
groups, gay, lesbian, questioning, and transgender)
* The student believes s/he is (or actually is)
so far behind academically that s/he does not feel s/he can successfully catch
up
* The student has a learning or behavioral
disability that makes them (feel) so different from other students that it is
easier to avoid school than attend it
* The student depends on a parent/guardian
to get him/her up in the morning, and does not have the organizational or
independent self-management knowledge and skills to do this on his/her own
* The student is up late at night
texting/communicating with peers (or) on social media, and constantly
oversleeps
* The student sees no relevance to
education. . . based on community, parental, peer, self, or situational (e.g.,
geographic, due to limited employment opportunities) values or attitudes
* The student wants to be (or would be more
successful) in a vocational/apprentice “track,” rather than a pure academic
track (but these opportunities are not available)
* The student has a specific medical (e.g.,
physical disabilities, chronic pain or headaches), health (e.g., obesity,
asthma), drug/alcohol, or mental health (e.g., separation anxiety, school
phobia, depression) problem or issue
* The student is homeless, has parents in
jail (thus, is living with another relative), is in foster care, is pregnant
* The student is the family’s primary
caregiver- - taking care of physically ill parents, babysitting younger
siblings so parents can work, working multiple “after-school” jobs to
financially support the family
_ _ _ _
_
As you can see, there are innumerable
hypotheses/reasons to explain chronic absenteeism.
For some students, more than one of the reasons
above apply.
For other students, their school absences
are now part of a pattern or routine that has long transcended the original
triggering or underlying event(s).
For still others, the absences are a symptom
of a different or related underlying problem or issue.
_ _ _ _
_
Critically: None of this is to condone the
students’ inappropriate behavior.
All of this is to understand
the behavior so that the highest probability of success interventions can be
identified and implemented to change the behavior.
_ _ _ _
_
Hopefully, administrators understand that
most chronically absent students are simply not “discipline problems”
who need consequences or punishments.
But for those that believe this, what do you do when the detentions, the
suspensions, the court referrals, and the alternative school placements have
not worked?
“Up the ante” with more punitive approaches?
And what if- - weeks or years down the road-
- information emerges that the chronically absent student who was treated as a
“discipline problem,” actually was a student who was his or her family’s
primary caregiver, was incessantly bullied in a previous school, or has/had a physical
or mental health issue?
_ _ _ _
_
I am not saying that these students
don’t take a lot of time and administrative effort. I am saying that we need to understand
these students in order to facilitate positive change. And this is best
accomplished through a multi-disciplinary Student Assistance Team and
data-based problem-solving process.
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
Why the Summer (NOW) is the Best Time to Act
To my administrative colleagues:
While I know that the “summer has come,” and
most administrators are either on break or have many, many administrative tasks
to complete, right now is the best time to take some definitive
steps toward understanding and beginning to address your chronically absent
students.
With all due respect, this is true because
the summer brings less day-to-day pressure of having all of your students,
staff, and parents attending or present in your schools.
This is true if you have related services or
mental health staff (i.e., counselors, school psychologists, social workers) available-
- because they also are on extended contracts.
And, this is true (from a prioritization
perspective) if your school approaches the national rate for chronically absent
students of 13%.
What You Can Do:
* You now have every student’s attendance
and tardy data for this entire just-completed 2015-2016 school year.
By looking at these data (along with,
ideally, the same data on the same students for the previous two to three
years), you can “red-flag” the chronically absent (and tardy) students from the
past year, and make sure that your current tracking/early warning data
management system has identified the same students.
_ _ _ _
_
* You can evaluate (as above) your current
tracking/early warning data management system (and make needed programming or
other improvements), and evaluate (changing, if needed) the personnel who are
responsible for monitoring and responding (early on) to “red-flagged” students.
_ _ _ _
_
* You can evaluate your current “decision
tree” process for differentiating between and addressing students who are
tardy, truant, or chronically absent (and make needed improvements). This may include establishing a Student
Attendance Subcommittee (within your School Discipline/Climate Committee),
and/or a Student Assistance Team.
_ _ _ _
_
* You can analyze and begin to triage your
“red-flagged” (see above) chronically tardy and absent students- - reaching out
by phone, mail, or e-mail to those students (as appropriate) and
parents/guardians where a positive re-connection is needed to re-establish a
positive, “working” relationship.
_ _ _ _
_
* You can identify, through your triage, the
students and parents where a summer (or just-before-school) conference with a counselor,
a trusted teacher, and/or an administrator can go a long way toward making the
“new” year a “better” year than the “old” year.
_ _ _ _
_
* Through the triage, you can identify the
students (and families) who need immediate community-based medical, social, or
other support services to alleviate some of their situational pressures- - for
example- - as primary caregivers.
_ _ _ _
_
* You can identify the students who need
immediate Student Assistance Team attention- - at the beginning of the new
school year (or before, if available and possible), so that the underlying
reasons for their chronic absences can be identified quickly and strategically
addressed.
_
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
Over the years, I have learned that we are busy- - year-round- - doing
the “work” of education. There simply is
no break in the action, we never have enough time, and there is no “good” time
to start a new initiative.
And so, we can only prioritize, work effectively and efficiently,
maximize the available (and manufacture new) resources, and minimize the
distractions that draw us off-track and off-task.
Students who are chronically absent require our attention because they
may be struggling with issues that can be addressed, and they create new
issues (e.g., academic underperformance, dropping out of school) that we
eventually will need to address.
I understand that these students often take up a lot of time, but I also
know that they are not a homogeneous group.
And if we do not understand the underlying reasons why they are missing
school, we cannot expect to change the behavioral patterns that will
successfully get them (and keep them in) school.
_ _ _ _ _
I
hope that today’s message “adds value” to the First Look report, and
motivates you to take a look at your own school, district, or community.
As always, I look forward to your thoughts
and comments. Feel free to contact me at
any time, and remember to look at my website (www.projectachieve.net) for the many
free resources that are available there.
Let me know how I can help you further. Feel free to forward this Blog link to your
colleagues.
Best,
Howie
