One of the reasons why chronic absenteeism is on the rise may be confusion about attendance policies. After strict health guidelines imposed during the pandemic, families may be unsure about when it is acceptable to send their child to school, and when it is best to keep them home due to colds, coughs, and other sicknesses. Here are a few recommendations for improving communication around when students should stay home and when they should come to school.
- Establish clear measures around health-related absences. After the pandemic, when districts urged extreme caution, stating that even a cold was a reason to keep students at home, many families may be unsure as to how sick is too sick to send kids to school. Partner with local health care providers to create new rules about sickness related absences. Use guidance from institutions like Harvard Health and Nationwide Children’s to develop your own school wide policy.
- Create materials that are easy to read. When disseminating information about health related absence policies, use graphic organizers like flow charts and question and answer sheets that anticipate questions and provide unambiguous answers to these questions. When possible, keep policies as short and to the point as possible.
- Clarify what counts as an absence. Sometimes families may believe that if their child attends for part of a day, it counts as being in school. Decide what you, as a school or district, count as an absence. (According to EdWeek, the widely accepted definition of an absence is when a student misses more than half of the school day.)
- Review internal absence policies. Schools often exercise unconscious bias when they make decisions about which students’ absences are excused and which are not. Students with disabilities, BIPOC students, and other marginalized populations often receive an unfair share of unexcused absences. Ensure that you are being fair and equitable in deciding whose absences count and whose don’t.
- Directly answer parent questions. Use school sponsored events like open houses and cultural festivals to talk to families directly about when it is appropriate to send children to school, and when it is appropriate to keep them at home. Home visits, newsletter information, and text messaging are also effective ways to communicate this information in multiple ways, as is connecting with families during pick up and drop off and enlisting teachers to speak informally with their students and their students’ caregivers.
- Avoid legal action and other punitive measures. Rather than punishing families for a lack of attendance – which research shows are not effective – work with them on addressing the barriers they face in attending school. This may include connecting them with a health service provider, talking with them directly about school policy, and / or communicating with them through text messages that specify their child’s name, the child’s teachers name, and the number of absences their child has accrued. (Sometimes, families don’t realize how much school their child has missed. Letting them know can help them address issues themselves.)
