By Patricia Jones,
Alliance Community Task Force: Creating Opportunity
The Alliance Public Schools have been working with the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and local leaders to work on the challenge of school absenteeism.
Since the COVID school shut-down in 2020, most American schools have been facing the problem of chronic absenteeism. Kids got used to using their computers to learn from home - whenever they felt like studying. Chronic absenteeism is a problem in the Alliance Public Schools. That means a student misses 10% or more of the school year, roughly eighteen days.
On Thursday, April 11, state and community leaders will meet with parents and caregivers of K-12 students, with a special focus on 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th-grade students in Alliance Public Schools who have missed 10 or more days of school. Child care, dinner, and translation services will be provided. And raffles and prizes!
On April 12, these leaders will work with school students. All 9th grade students will be involved. Middle school students with ten or more absences will be included.
In the parent meeting, the goal is to understand the largest hurdles to school attendance for kids and better understand any barriers to accessing resources to help families. The discussion will focus on what is at stake - why is school attendance so important? What are the reasons why so many kids in Alliance don’t make it to school? Are there cultural barriers? What are some solutions that would increase regular attendance in our schools?
The student meeting on Friday for grades 6-9 will involve several small group activities and discussions.
Research shows that attendance is an important factor in student achievement. Missing a day of school means missing that opportunity to learn. Students who are chronically absent will fall behind in their classes. They will score lower on tests and fail more courses. They are more likely to drop out of high school.
Hedy Chang, the executive director of Attendance Works, worries the kids missing out on school are the same ones who need it the most. They are more likely to live in poverty, be minorities, or have disabilities. They are not only missing learning opportunities, they are missing benefits like free lunch and check-ups with the school nurse. They are not only missing classes, they are missing activities.
School is a social environment where kids are thrown together. During COVID, students lost the connection to peers. They also lost the connection to caring adults who are not part of their immediate family.
Making the adjustment from classes at home to classes with several kids has been hard for some. They may feel like they don’t belong in school any more or don’t need to be there. Isolation and social media have created stresses for youth. Some cope better than others, and some kids stay home.
Learning in school is not only knowing what is covered in classes like Math, Science, Social Studies, and English. It is also social and emotional learning. Students learn to identify what is important in their lives. They learn to manage their emotions. How do their behaviors affect others? Empathy, caring about others' feelings, develops. Students discover how to express themselves and how to make responsible decisions. And they develop friendships.
We all want our youth to thrive. Their futures should be filled with responsibility, respect, and, most importantly, happiness. Being in school every day is an important first step.