Post pandemic, across the nation, chronic absenteeism has reached unprecedented levels. As schools hone their approaches to improving attendance, here are a few fundamentals to keep in mind:
- Treat attendance with curiosity, not punishment. Studies show that punitive approaches to attendance are ineffective, corroding trust and ignoring underlying problems keeping students from school. Rather than punishing chronically absent students, talk with them and their families about the issues that are affecting their attendance, and let them know that you’re here to help, not punish.
- Work with data. Begin your approach to chronic absenteeism with robust and frequent data collection. Identify individual students who are frequently absent and look for patterns among populations or communities. Is an entire neighborhood of students chronically absent? Then perhaps their routes to school are unsafe, and need to be improved. Are a large proportion of LGBTQIA+ students feeling unsafe at school? Then perhaps homophobia and transphobia must be addressed at a systemic level. Are more a disproportionate number of Black or disabled students absent because of discipline issues? Then perhaps the school needs to examine their internal biases and / or establish disciplinary practices like restorative justice that don’t require students to miss class time.
- Work with individual families. The importance of working with individual absentees cannot be overstated. Often, students are not attending school because they lack housing stability, must take on adult responsibilities like working or translating, or their younger siblings need childcare. By addressing these underlying problems, schools not only support individual families, they also build trust with the larger community by showing their ability to resource those who need it most.
- Make schools safe and welcoming. Students who feel physically or mentally unsafe, who feel socially isolated, or who feel targeted by bullying or ostracism are unlikely to come to school. Create programs to strengthen school culture by training students and staff on inclusion principals, and by making school buildings warm, safe, and welcoming places. Allow students to paint murals on walls, create a buddy bench at school, and implement socioemotional learning for students and adults in order to shift the building into a physically and emotionally welcoming place.
- Teach inclusive curricula. Teach curricula that reflect the identities of students and families who are part of the school community. Help them see themselves as a part of the school, and to see the learning the school provides as both useful and relevant
- Provide academic challenges and supports. Students who are academically overburdened or bored often feel little or no incentive to come to school. Ensure that students with IEPs and other challenges have the supports they need in place, and make sure that teachers are able to differentiate for advanced learners so that they feel valued, challenged, and seen.
- Make extracurriculars accessible. Ensure that students of all races, classes, genders, sexualities, and abilities are able to attend extracurricular activities and school events. Host events that celebrate various cultures and linguistic groups, as well as disabled students and newcomers. Start student support groups like Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) and parent groups like English Language Learner (ELL) family meetings. Sometimes students are motivated to come to school for reasons beyond the curricula – give them reasons by creating spaces for all to feel welcome, seen, and involved.
